For Windows and Linux users, Firefox 3.6.4 provides what they called "uninterrupted browsing". So, what does this mean?  Firefox loads certain plugins (like Adobe Flash, Quicktime, and Silverlight) in a separate process  to provide you uninterrupted browsing even when certain plugins stops working.

How can I disable plugin-container.exe?

I would not recommend disabling this feature because it is there for a pretty good purpose.  However, some people have had issues with it using a fair share of memory.  So for those who want to stop plugin-container.exe – here are the steps to do so:

1. In the Firefox address bar, type in about:config
2. In the filter box, type in dom.ipc
3. Ignore dom.ipc.plugins.enabled and dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs. Toggle (double-click) each of the four remaining preferences to change the value from true to false

So to translate of of the technical jargon here – this is a feature of Firefox and will do you no harm.  It is not malware or something else that is nasty and causing problems for your PC either.  It is mainly there just to keep plugins like Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime and Microsoft Silverlight from crashing the browser.

Is it fair that other companies can install unrequested plugins to Firefox?  It is happening right now, and there is not a lot we can do about it.  Asa Dotzler brought this topic up in one of his most recent blog posts and I do think it is an interesting debate.  The three big tech giants out there find it ok to add things to Firefox without asking me first.  Google does it.  Microsoft does it.  Even Apple does it. 

Here is meat and potatoes of the complaint from Asa’s post:

Why do Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others think that it is an OK practice to add plug-ins to Firefox when I’m installing their software packages. When I installed iTunes, in order to manage my music collection and sync to my iPod, why did Apple think it was OK to add the iTunes Application Detector plug-in to my Firefox web browser without asking me? Why did Microsoft think it was OK to sneak their Windows Live Photo Gallery or Office Live Plug-in for Firefox into my browser (presumably) when I installed Microsoft Office? What makes Google think it’s reasonable behavior for them to slip a Google Update plug-in into Firefox when I installed Google Earth or Google Chrome (not sure which one caused this) without asking me first?

I have to agree with him, I do not think this is an ok behavior at all.  When installing any type of software to Firefox or to my computer in general – companies should be open and honest when doing so.  Make sure people know what they are getting and well, they shouldn’t be evil.  When you stop and think about it, Apple, Microsoft and Google all have their own browsers now too. 

What is to stop them from doing something bad with their Firefox plugins to make themselves look better?

Most Popular Search Plugins for Firefox *

• YouTube – Find all kinds of cool web videos.
• IMDB – Quickly find that one actor that was in that movie you just saw.
• Wikipedia – The web’s encyclopedia.
• Album-Cover-Art.org – Quickly find album art from your favorite musical artists.
• isoHunt – BT search – Find ISO images quickly using this search plugin.
• Merriam-Webster – It is like the dictionary, but Online! (insert ooh and awe here)
• Live Search – Microsoft’s lovable underdog of a search engine.
• Flickr – Find photos by searching via the image tags.
• Weather Channel – Is that a tornado in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?
• Amazon – Use Amazon’s A9 search to find Amazon products, and anything else on the Web.

Roll Your Own Search Plugin

Want to roll your own search plugin using any web site search box out there.  That is an easy task to accomplish with the Add to Search Bar extension.  If you want to “do it by hand” you can also create your own plugins with this handy tutorial from the Mozilla Developer Center.

More Search Plugin Databases

Now with those mentioned, you can’t mention the search engine box without mentioning the MyCroft project.  There you can find a search engine plugin or search provider that you can quickly add to the Firefox search box.

To check out their most popular search engines, be sure to check out the Top 100 listings.

What tools and plugins do you use to keep your searching in order?

* – Yes,I left Google off the popular plugin list, cause everybody knows about Google.

Here are some of the important files you might seen in your profile folder and what they are used for.

• search.sqlite and the searchplugins folder – The first file, search.sqlite stores the order that your search engines (for the search box) are sorted. Inside of the searchplugins folder you can find all the extra search engines you have installed.
• mimeTypes.rdf – your preferences with respect to what Firefox does when it comes across known file types.
• formhistory.sqlite - this is where information that you have searched for or entered into forms on web sites (think autocomplete) is stored.
• places.sqlite – this is the file that contains your bookmarks and previously visited web sites.
• cert8.db – all your security certificate settings and any SSL certificates you have imported are stored here.
• permissions.sqlite – the file here stores site specific preferences, such as if you allow it to install add-ons, show images, display popups or any special orders you have allowed for that domain.
• key3.db and signons3.txt – these are the files that store your password information you have saved.
• persdict.dat – this file will hold your words you have personally put into Firefox’s built in spellchecker.
• cookies.sqlite – your web site cookies are stored here.

Now, I do know there are more files – however, these are the files that are most important for you to know about, just in case something bad might happen.  Hopefully, this additional documentation will come in handy when troubleshooting your own Firefox issues or problems.

Firefox Addiction Recovery Center from Leeroy Jenkins on Vimeo.

Should be one to keep a place to keep an eye on. If you too need a fix for your addiction check out firefoxaddiction.com.

The OneClick Installer for WordPress extension for Firefox hopes to change that for me. A very unique idea indeed – this extension promises to give you that “one click” install process for any WordPress theme or plugin out there.

This makes the job of customizing your WordPress install just a little easier for folks that don’t want to dive into the HTML editors and FTP clients to get things done. To learn more about it, you can check out the author’s post on it – or check it out for yourself at the Mozilla addons web site.

The easiest way to download new extensions is to open up Firefox, then go to Tools then click on Add-ons. When that Window pops up, click on the “Get Extensions” link on the bottom. This will load up Mozilla’s official Firefox extensions Web site. If you don’t want to go through all of that to visit it – just bookmark this link:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:1

From there you can navigate yourself around and find some extensions that might interest you. For an example, lets say you want to use the Download Statusbar extension. All you need to do is click the “Install Now” button on that Web page for it.

After you do that, a new window should pop up asking you if you really wanted to install this. Wait for the countdown on the button to run out, and then click “Install Now”. After that you should see it downloading and when it is finished Firefox will ask you to restart the browser. Go ahead and do that, then when it returns your extension should be installed.

One more thing you might watch out for is that the extension works with the version of Firefox that you are using. Via the Mozilla Addon-ons Web site – they give you a version number of Firefox that the extension should be compatible with. If you have a problem getting it loaded, that might be the reason why.

You can download Firefox extensions from other Web sites as well. When you do, and you click on their install links you’ll get a warning message come up under your tab bar saying something to the effect of “this Web site is not authorized to do that”. If you are sure you want to install it, just hit OK and you should be good to go. Another nice thing about Firefox, it’s secure – but it keeps it simple.

What about plugins?

Plugins help your browser perform specific functions like viewing special graphic formats or playing multimedia files. Plugins are slightly different from extensions, which modify or add to existing functionality.

You can download plugins for Java, Windows Media, Quicktime, Flash and more from this Web site.

She was a beginner and didn’t know which way to turn really. I pointed her towards the same place a point all my friends that want to know a little more about search engine plugins – Mozilla’s official Web site for them.

That is the best place to get started in my opinion. Have any other links that might be a good place for her to begin with customizing that search box in the upper-right hand corner of your browser?

For those of you out there who are still using Internet Explorer, there is another option that won’t open your computer to all sorts of security holes. Better yet, it will automatically kill most pop-up windows and, when you switch to it, it will incorporate all of your bookmarks from Internet Explorer. I switched years ago and it’s the best thing I ever did; in fact, I now get frustrated when I have to use Internet Explorer on other machines.

+ Check Out the 10 Firefox Plugins That Save You Money!

+ Learn How to Create a Search Plugin!