Last updated: October 19, 2017
By testing your Firefox plugins regularly, you have an opportunity to learn about any installed plugins. In doing so, you may discover plugins that are not updating automatically, which could pose a security risk to your system. Out-of-date plugins can also interrupt your web browsing, and increase your risk of attack by malware. By learning about installed plugins, you are not only helping to keep your own browsing safer and better, but also helping to make the web better too.
To check if your plugins are up to date, visit the Firefox Plugin Check page. When the page first loads, it will detect the installed plugins on your system. There are three sections of results: 1) Outdated Plugins, 2) These plugins are up to date, and 3) Unknown Plugins. The name of the plugin displays, accompanied by its Status, and a recommended Action.
Check Your Plugins
Firefox Plugin Check lists any outdated plugin it detects at the top of the results page. In the example below, the plugin check discovered an outdated and vulnerable plugin (Adobe Reader). The recommended action was Update Now.
Click the Update Now button for the outdated plugin to launch the plugin developer’s web site. Follow the update instructions provided by the plugin developer. Using our example, the Update Now button directed us to the Adobe Reader web site to download and install the latest version of the plugin. Once the update was completed, we revisited the Firefox Plugin Check page to check the status of the plugins. In this case, Adobe Reader is now Up To Date, and displays under the list of other plugins that area also up to date.
At the base of the Firefox Plugin Check page is the Unknown Plugins section. If Firefox detects plugins that it cannot categorize as Outdated or Up To Date, it will list them here. A Research button is available for you to research the plugin’s status on your own. The Research button defaults to a Google search query for the plugin in question.
Firefox is a free web browser application developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It runs on desktops with the Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. A mobile version of Firefox is available for iOS and Android devices.
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