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.

There has been a pretty cool update to Firefox in the past 24 hours.  If a plugin crashes or freezes, it will no longer affect the rest of your browser.  You will be able to reload the page, restart the plugin and try again.

So, the next time Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins give you trouble, Firefox has you taken care of.  Say your watching a video or playing a flash game in the browser, and the plugin crashes – rather than taking the whole browser down with it – you simply just refresh the webpage.

Here is a little more information from Mozilla:

Mozilla recognizes that third-party plugins provide important functionality in many of today’s websites. At the same time, plugins can lead to problems for users as they browse. With the ability to automatically alert users when they have out of date plugins, and now crash protection, Firefox 3.6.4 allows users to experience all the content they love without any of the hassles.

To get this new update, if it hasn’t downloaded already, just go to Help in your menu bar and then “Check for Updates”.  A more secure and stable browsing platform is coming your way.  Who doesn’t like that?

Need more? Here is a little more information about this issue and fix via Mozilla Developer News:

Due to the security fixes, we strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. If you are still running Firefox 1.5.0.x, you are highly encouraged to upgrade to the Firefox 2 series as Mozilla ceased supporting Firefox 1.5.0.x in May 2007. Simply choose “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu to begin the upgrade process.

For more information about the problem, check out this post on CyberNet News about it. Also if you want – you can download and install it via GetFirefox.com.