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What is plugin-container.exe?

  • 146 replies
  • 243 have this problem
  • 732 views
  • Last reply by pickwicknt

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The extension plugin-container.exe wanted access to the internet. The file was located in my Mozzile folder, but I read somewhere that it is malware. Is this file supposed to be there, and is it normal for attempt to receive a connection? Is it safe?

This happened

Just once or twice

== After the most recent update just a few hours ago.

The extension plugin-container.exe wanted access to the internet. The file was located in my Mozzile folder, but I read somewhere that it is malware. Is this file supposed to be there, and is it normal for attempt to receive a connection? Is it safe? == This happened == Just once or twice == After the most recent update just a few hours ago.

Chosen solution

Go to the following link, click on "What's New in Firefox 3.6.4". The first 2 paragraphs is a brief explanation of what plugin-container.exe is designed to do. Right now, in Windows and Linux only, it isolates Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins from the main browser, so that if one of those plug-ins crashes, your whole browser does not crash. This was done due to the large number of crashes caused by plug-ins. Plans are to add more plug-ins in later updates to Firefox.

https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6.4/releasenotes/

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All Replies (20)

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For 'Morbus'... Thank you so much for the post re: disabling Add-Ons to resolve the crashing problem in FireFox and the pop-up warning about the "plugin-container.exe"

Yes, I had the same problem, especially when visiting a Fantasy Football site. FireFox would crash then I would get the same "plugin-container.exe" warning.

After reading your post I applied these steps to solve my problem. (1) Started FireFox in Firefox's Safe Mode. (Not the OS System Safe Mode) (2) Went to the page that was crashing and discovered that the problem page was now loading properly. Which as you thought, the problem is ADD-ON based. (3) Starting up Firefox normally, I systematically started to 'Disable' one Add-on at a time and going to the problem site. (4) I crashed everytime UNTIL I 'Disabled' one ADD-ON. (5) In my instance the problem ADD-ON IN FIREFOX that was crashing my web page viewing was....."FIRETORRENT 2.0.1"

This ADD-ON is now UNINSTALLED from FireFox, and I have normal viewing.

Maybe more people should just find the specific ADD-ON that is causing the problem.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers 'Morbus' and Cheers FireFox.

I'm back in love with FireFox again!!!

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I always found FF to be slow and finnicky. I'm now back to using IE. Now you will have to spend double the amount of time to switch me back to FF than before. Actually I liked the old Netscape 4 version both browser and email until it got bastardized. And, as a mater of fact, why would developers of FF be apologising? FF is a free product, anyone who does not like it are free to use something else :-) Unless.. there are some Interest Groups using FF in some eay profitable to them, such as secret spyware, secret malware or at least adware that we are not aware of?

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@ Jackman I'm glad! :)

@ Carbu Rator Please read my original post about this issue, as I'm sure it will help you fix your problems with Firefox.

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I hear you "jimbojones". I don't understand why they don't accept the fact that this autoupdate was their fault. They apparently didn't check to make sure that this update would actually work. Here's a helpful link to version 3.6.3 so you can downgrade with the rest of us.

http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.6.3/win32/en-US/

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Thank you. Could you please advise why would developers of FF would be interested in keeping me using FF browsers, keeping in mind it is a free product? What kind of interest lies behind it?

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Unfortunately, most, but not all, who post in these "complaint threads" seem more interested in complaining than in finding a solution to the problems they are experiencing: -they do NOT read the whole thread to see if someone has suggested a solution -they do NOT search the forum for other thread with possible solutions -they do NOT use Google's Advanced Search options to try to find answers (better than built-in search here) -they do NOT want to admit that the problem could be with their own system or their own Firefox configuration -they do NOT understand how much RAM/processor usage is because of some of the Add-ons they are running and DON'T care enough to learn about that -they do NOT take the time to run Firefox Safe Mode to analyze the problem -they say it is too time consuming and they are too busy, but they have time to play games and watch videos, at work and at home, and they have the time to post their continuing complaints instead of meaningful information so that someone might be able to help them find a solution -they are unwilling to help themselves -I have worked around people like this my entire career, both in office environments and as a computer consultant, and I DO KNOW that this is the case

I have no problems with Firefox 3.6.4 or the plugin-container.exe running. I have an P4 system with 1.5G RAM. Total RAM usage rarely exceeds 500MB, for everything (firewall, monitoring utilities, Windows files, AV/AS, Firefox, etc.) even when watching vids. Flash-based games, which I do not play and have no interest in, are RAM and processor intensive. These people would know that if they spent a little time reading/researching the issue; BUT THEN THAT WOULD TAKE AWAY FROM THEIR GAME PLAYING TIME, wouldn't it?

RAM and processor usage problems have been reported by a few, in comparison to the total number of Firefox users, for some time. Check out what you are running in those tabs. Scan your system for malware. Look at your outgoing connections logs in your firewall or router. Get a program that shows you the outgoing connections, like TCPView and do some investigation on your own. Get Process Explorer for real second-to-second monitoring of what processes are using RAM and processor time.

Grow up people. Look around this forum. Other threads tell you ~~red:HOW TO TURN OFF PLUGIN-CONTAINER.EXE~~ if you are so inclined.:

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/706123?

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@ Carbu Rator You may be interested in reading Mozilla's mission statement. I'm sure it will enlighten you on the reasons behind developing and giving away Firefox for free.

@ Long_Time_FF_User While I agree with you, for the most part, I do not recommend you get defensive if you're trying to help other users. It always help to be as patient and polite as possible. But it's true, people tend to want to find someone to blame more than they want to fix things, but that's to be expected, and we shouldn't generalize. Let's provide as much help as possible and be patient, because when people are facing problems, in whatever it is, they tend to react rather differently than they would otherwise.

In any case, if you're having problems and you don't want to read the whole thread, I recommend you read my original post on the issue. If it doesn't help, tell us and we'll help you the best we know and can.

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Oh I am sorry I will get back to my game playing and ignore every advice given by morbus.

Long-time-ff-user yes we are all on here to lay blame without trying to solve the problem. Most of us enjoy having slow PC's. As you do not know everyone in here and who they are and what they do for a living it kind of renders your high horse speech useless.

Not everyone has their setup on their laptops or desktop PCs the same. I have followed the example given by Morbus and nothing worked.

Morbus thank you for your help anyway. I am going to run a full diagnostic on my laptop to find out the origin of the problem.

As for Long time Firefox user why not next time come in and give some usefull info rather than attack others who are stuck. Not everyone is in here to bad mouth the program or not look for solutions. I do find it odd that you are in here though if you don't have the problem. Strike me as the type of busy body who has to have his say for no reason other than self glorification.

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jimbojones is obviously not very bright, pay no attention to him Morbus! He probably doesn't even use Firefox and is just here to cause trouble!

I have no problems with the latest update and it's working perfectly. But my sis's laptop had problems and I checked and it had an outdated Flash. So I updated, right? Same problem! I complained to Adobe and they helped me get it fixed. It's not working perfectly!

IMO, if anyone comes here asking for help and then spit in the face who are so kind to do their best and spend so much time helping people here, those people don't deserve the least bit of respect. Go use internet explorer 6 for all I care! That kind of arrogant pedantic users who just come here to cause trouble are not welcome!!!

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@ jimbojones Again, I'm sorry that you're having problems, but you haven't answered my questions, I believe. Does running Firefox in safe mode with add-ons disabled make the issue go away? If you have replied, I apologize.

Well, if it doesn't make it go away, have you tried creating a new temporary Firefox profile (managing profiles)? Does the new profile have the same problem?

If it does go away in safe mode, have you tried disabling all plugins in normal mode? Does that fix the problem in normal mode? If so, please enable them one by one until you find the one that causes this problem. Please report back the results.

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Morbus: "In any case, if you're having problems and you don't want to read the whole thread, I recommend you read my original post on the issue. If it doesn't help, tell us and we'll help you the best we know and can."

You did not read my post: I have no problems with Firefox 3.6.4 or the plugin-container.exe running.


jimbojones: "As for Long time Firefox user why not next time come in and give some usefull info rather than attack others who are stuck."

This thread concerns "plugin-container.exe". I have given a solution in referring to the following thread. Did you read it? For those having problems with plugin-container.exe, it is a way to completely disable the use of plugin-container.exe: https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/706123?

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@ Karun Let us please not go into personal attacks. Users have a right to be upset when facing problems. I'm happy that you've fixed your problem, but let's try and help other users fix their problems too.

Also, people shouldn't use Internet Explorer 6, as it's completely out dated, is very slow, unsafe and lacks features and web site support. If you want to use Internet Explorer, please use the latest version.

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@ Long_Time_FF_User I did read that part. I was talking for all users in general :)

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I don't understand why you try to blame someone else for the problem when it appared with the upgrade. I will go back to the old version, don't want to spend a lot of time trying to sort out a problem when I don't care about the reason. I just want it to work as it did. I hope someone will fix the problem.

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User, I'm not blaming trying to blame anyone. You need to understand that plugins are made for the browsers, not the other way around. You'll see that you have different Flash installers for Internet Explorer and for Firefox, for example. This is a clear indicator of how Adobe (in Flash's case) has to make different versions of Flash for different browsers. All plugins are the same, even though this example may not apply to all of them. Plugins are made to be inserted in the browsers, not the other way around.

Also, know that it is not recommended to downgrade for Firefox 3.6.3, since Firefox 3.6.4 includes security fixes from previous versions. You'll probably find version 3.5.10 to be the best solution, if you want to downgrade, as it contains all the latest security fixes, but doesn't have plugin isolation.

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i gotta problem 1 adobe flashplayer is crashing 2 that plugin exe is crashing my internet browser firefox

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I realize that some users have problems and just wanted to mention that between myself and my family/friends we have 8 different pc's/laptops configured differently with no problem at all using the latest FF update. We are all using Windows XP though and it might be interesting to see what operating system are used by those experiencing problems...although I suspect as Morbus says...an add-on. Btw...on my pc I blocked plugin-container.exe via sygate and it is also functioning perfectly without hanging at all.

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I just had to switch to using google chrome. My browser keeps crashing with a plugin container link something something. I dont even know all of this computer mumbo jumbo so to save my self the headache...bye bye mozilla. No time to even attempt downgrading to an older version. I've had 10 crashes of 3.6.4 in the past day.

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Keron Henderson, if you have a problem with Google Chrome, you need to contact Google, since they are the ones that develop it. Be mindful that the big amounts of RAM it uses up when browsing multiple tabs is not a bug, but rather a "feature" of Chrome. Also, be mindful that the impossibility of having many tabs in the same window is not a bug, but rather a "feature" of Chrome. Bear in mind, in addition, that the relatively poverty of add-ons for Google Chrome is not as much due to its age as it is to the impossibility of developing add-ons for it that are as rich as those for Firefox. Don't forget either that the fact that Chrome will send, by default, potentially private information to Google is not a bug, but rather a "feature" of Chrome. You may also end up finding the very same problems you found in Firefox, if those were due to careless usage of add-ons or an infected system. For any usability problems, you will need to contact Google directly, too.

Also, if you are using another browser out of spite or because you can't fix your problem with Firefox, I will remind you that Mozilla is a non-profit, public service organization, and, as such, doesn't have the same financial interests Google (or any other company developing a major web browser) does. Mozilla's objective is that you, the user, use the browser you want, be if Firefox or any other browser. If you want to use Firefox but can't, due to a problem, I'm glad to work with you the best I know and can to fix it. Be sure to read my original post on the issue, though. If you actually want to use another browser, then I'm happy that you finally found your "home", and my job is successfully done.

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I have been running the development versions of 3.6.4pre (Namoroka) for over two months, and had a problem with the plugin container crashing exactly once. I never saw the plugin container using excessive CPU - and I keep the Task Manager open & minimized all the time so I can watch CPU usage meter in the System Tray.

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