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Why is plugin-container.exe showing in processes when I have disabled all extensions and plug-ins?

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Firefox has been running slow, locking and becoming unresponsive since 27.0, I now have 28.0 installed, but no difference. I suspect the plug-in container might be causing or contributing to this. Would you kindly tell me why it is still running when everything is disabled, I want to block it. Also, how comes I can watch a YouTube video when Flash is disabled? I get the initial - This plug-in is disabled - notice and then the video starts playing?

Firefox has been running slow, locking and becoming unresponsive since 27.0, I now have 28.0 installed, but no difference. I suspect the plug-in container might be causing or contributing to this. Would you kindly tell me why it is still running when everything is disabled, I want to block it. Also, how comes I can watch a YouTube video when Flash is disabled? I get the initial - This plug-in is disabled - notice and then the video starts playing?

Chosen solution

It is possible that the HTML5 media player is being used to play the videos.
If the Flash player would be used the you get the Flash player context menu if you right-click the video player.


Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

You can create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem

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Chosen Solution

It is possible that the HTML5 media player is being used to play the videos.
If the Flash player would be used the you get the Flash player context menu if you right-click the video player.


Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window.

You can create a new profile as a test to check if your current profile is causing the problem.

See "Creating a profile":

If the new profile works then you can transfer files from a previously used profile to the new profile, but be cautious not to copy corrupted files to avoid carrying over the problem

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Thank you very much for helping cor-el.

You were right, when I right click the video - about the HTML5 player - shows.

What I don't understand is why does plugin-container.exe show in processes when I have disabled all extensions and plug-ins? Can you explain?

The other odd thing is sometimes Firefox runs fine for a while, normal, then something seems to repeatedly lock it up until it becomes unresponsive.

I have already created a new profile, I will try Safe Mode as you suggested.


'edit Cross Linking ~J99

For further discussion and explanation see also https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/993137#answer-553842

Modified by John99