After yesterday’s news about the fake Firefox update that is out there in the wild, I thought it might be a good time to go over how you can get your plugins updated.  Thankfully, Mozilla has made this really simple with the Plugin Check part of their website.

All you need to do is go to the Plugin Check website, and automatically your browser is scanned to make sure all your plugins are up to date. If you are up to date, you will see this badge here:

If you are not up to date, then you will see this badge here:

When you click the “Update” badge, as seen above – you will be taken to the official website for the plugin in question so that you can get it up to date.  This makes checking all your plugins and getting them updated so much easier. Some of the things it checks for include: Flash, Java, Silverlight, QuickTime, and more. (Those are the important ones though)

If it does not know what it is, or can not find the current version – then you get this kind of weird gray badge here:

When then will lead you to a Google search, when clicked, for “current version plugin (PLUGIN NAME HERE)”.  So you can go out on your own and probably find the update you need (if one is needed) within the first few results you get.

Hint: You can also get to Plugin Check, by going to Tools in the menu toolbar, then click Add-ons, then go to the Plugins section. Click the “Get Updates” button at the bottom of the window, and you will be taken to the Plugin Check website.

So, those are the basics when using the Plugin Check website Mozilla provides for all Firefox users.  For people who might not know there way around with updating this, that or the other – it makes the process of getting things updated a lot easier.

Here is what the page looks like (via F-Secure):

Then, the download box will automatically appear asking you to save the file, “ff-update.exe” or something very similar to it.  If you do that, then you have successfully installed the virus.

It looks like virus and malware authors are targeting Firefox users, as they would bank users – trying to make you feel like your on a safe place with a page that looks like it belongs to Mozilla.

So be safe out there, and make sure to check and double check anytime your dealing with downloads in any browser out there.

At this time Nodobe support 38 different file format:

Adobe PDF:
pdf

Microsoft Office:
doc, docx, rtf, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx

Images:
png, jpg, gif, tif, bmp, ppm, xpm

Vector Graphics:
eps, ras

Text Files:
txt

OpenOffice:
odt, odf, ott, odg, odp, stw, sxw, std, sxd, sti, sxi, sxc

StarOffice:
sda, sdd, sdw, vor

OpenDocument:
otg, stp, ods, pts

You can pick up the Nodobe Viewer on its official web site or the Firefox Add-ons web site.  Free yourself from Adobe, and give it a shot today.  Also if you know of anymore Adobe Reader alternatives, be sure to share!

+ Download and Install the PDF Download Extension for Firefox!