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What is plugin-container.exe?

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  • 243 have this problem
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  • 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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Plugin-Container is using 96 percent of my available resources. This most recent version of FF is an horrendous example of unfinished and untested work by Mozilla entering the broad market. I simply will not endure the backward momentum of a software developer during the period of time when their lead product is totally dysfunctional. Adios till you get your act together.

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I was thinking that I have something wrong with my computer but it seems that firefox is causing this failure. It's just started to be like that after latest auto update. How to go back to the last state and disable the auto update this shit?

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@ John It's possible that you are having a problem with some Firefox add-on that is hindering your Firefox's normal behavior. Have you tried disabling all add-ons (just to check), to see if Firefox goes back to normal?

Whenever you have a problem with Firefox, whatever it is, you should make sure it's not caused by one (or more than one) of your installed add-ons, be it an extension, a theme or a plugin. To do that easily and cleanly, run Firefox in safe mode (don't forget to select Disable all add-ons when you start safe mode). If the problem disappears, you know it's from an add-on. Disable them all in normal mode, and enable them one at a time until you find the source of the problem. See this article for information about troubleshooting extensions and theme and this one for plugins.

If you need support for one of your add-ons, you'll have to contact its author.

@ Miguel It's simple: if you don't follow my advice, I can't help you. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. Please start by reading my original post on the issue. We'll proceed from there. If you need help understanding English, please tell me and I'll help you.

@ Stephen Please read my original post about this. If it doesn't help, please tell me so we can work together in fixing your issue.

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Honestly, i just deleted and uninstalled my FF. Does not matter how hard you try to make yourselves look good, but it;'s useless to me after all these plugins are messing up my computer and my browsing experience and after someone started hacking into my computer while the plugin-cointainer.exe was on and how my Comodo firewall disappeared etc. I'm back to using IE, although I hate it too, because now i must upgrade to IE8 which I believe is probably another "tool" for a large corporation to suck my computer dry. Google browser is not interesting to me, because it does not have all the necessary features for me to live on it. I wish the Netscape 4 was still available. It was such a light browser and such a nice mail program until it got screwed up by greedy overgrown corporations. I'm considering becoming involved in activities which do not require access to email or internet. Right now i'm submitting my resumes to companies who hire foresters and loggers etc. where i can stay away from this "web'.

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All of a sudden my XM (Syrius) Radio won't play on FF even if I reenabled those damn plugins! I uninstalled FF and am nack toi using the IE browser, which is not perfect either, but much easier to use, especially the older versions. I never really liked FF as it was too slow and weird. I will try Google Chrome broza now.

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Help! Mozilla 3.6.4 on my computer is crashing very often while watching youtube videos (every 5 minutes,especially when i try to skip video for few minutes,or when I'm going from one video to another),and after crash i get message:

"plugin-container.exe" needs to close,sorry for the inconvinience

I'm using windows xp sp2,I didn't have problems with last mozilla. I updated all of my plugins except Microsoft® DRM (when I click on mozilla support page to update it,nothing happens???) Please help!

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@ Jim1 Please red this post. If it doesn't help, please tell me.

@ Andrew Again, please read this post. I hope it helps. If it doesn't, please tell me so we can work together to fix your problem.

Also, 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. If you actually want to use another browser, then I'm happy that you finally found your "home", and my job is successfully done.

@ Nebojsa Once again, be sure to read this post. I really hope it helps you fix your problem, but if it doesn't, please tell me so we can work from there.

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Like many, plugin-container.exe is hogging all my resources. I've also tried all of everyone's suggestions (yes, yours too Morbus) and none of them seems to work. i'm forced to use just one tab now (it's making me sad) and i now alternate between other browsers. i know that would hog some resources but right now, it just prevents me from seeing the crashes and the lags i see with FF.

not mad at mozilla, just wanted to have my say in this. i hope there's an update to this soon, i miss the way i used to use firefox. i'll still be using firefox, but i'm definitely avoiding anything that will use flash. (i think this is odd, since it feels like the opposite of what i deal with when i use safari on my parents' mac. can't really use flash and all)...but anyway i'll keep using FF so that i'll be able to tell if there's an update or not :D thanks

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Hello Jackie.

So running Firefox in safe mode, having checked "disable all add-ons", still makes the plugin-container.exe hog your system? Please try creating a new temporary Firefox profile: managing profiles. See if the issue remains in the new profile. Hopefully the results will help me know what's going on, as this is not Firefox's normal behavior.

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Plugin Container is using 225,000 K on my machine. And as unlikely as this will sound, Zone Alarm got hosed yesterday and is empty. I know it makes no sense, but highly coincidental with updated FF. I had to uninstall ZoneAlarm thoroughly to get my network to work again.

~Bob

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Subscribing to this thread now...

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in4m8n, if you are browsing flash heavy pages, 225MB of RAM seems reasonable. If you're not, however, it doesn't.

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I hate the new update - seriously, it has slowed FF to a crawl and made it a hindrance. Writing this post on Safari. Perfect example - I loaded news.com.au on FF and went to somethingawful.com. During the hang, I opened Safari, loaded news.com.au and went to somethingawful.com - all the while whilst FF hung waiting for me to press enter for it to load the site. Its a farce - prior to the update, this did not happen (nor did I have crashes.) I run three plugins - colorful tabs, no script and newtaburl - nothing else. The plugin container was actually running at more memory usage on blabbermouth.net than firefox AND safari combined.

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If I had a nickel for everytime the helpdesk told me "It shouldn't be doing that"...

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Anton, those are actually extensions, not plugins. Plugins are stuff like Flash and Silverlight. Those are the add-ons that run in the plugin container. Have you read this post?

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What I don't understand is my Firefox never crashed pre 3.6.4 with multiple tabs using flash video. What erks me the most is now only having 2 tabs open it is using 200+megs of memory, one tab is this site and the other is ctv.ca. Unacceptable for older machines if you ask me.

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@Morbus - I've disabled plugin-container.exe using about:config as described at MozillaZine, and my broswer is working prefectly without plugin-container.exe, what does that mean to you?

the problem is coming from plugin-container.exe, what will it take for you to admit that? I'm suggesting that Mozilla fixes plugin-container.exe, so it won't slow down the broswer...

I noticed in the thread that you presented FF crash statistics, but do those stats include if the browser slows down?

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no choice but i have roll back to firefox 3.6.3

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I just upgrade FF to latest version and I see the plugin-Container. exe in my windows task manager also . Since the upgrade Im having flash issues also that did not use to be there. Sometimes Flash video will stop , Hang and or crash altogether. This is very fustrating.

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Jiunn Yik, it sounds like you're having problems with Shockwave Flash plugin. Please contact Adobe for support.

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