How do I disable the plugin-container.exe? It is eating a lot of memory.

When my computer slows down, I open the task manager and it tells me that the plugin-container.exe is using upwards of 79k in memory. Is there a way that I can disable it? What are the consequences of doing so and are there any other remedies for this exorbitant use of memory by that program?

Do not confuse extensions and plugins. 
Extensions (Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) add extra functionality (features) to Firefox. 
Plugins (Tools > Add-ons > Plugins) make it possible to handle specific data (files) served by websites like media files and Flash content.

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How can I disable the plugin-container.exe that, runs in the background?

Every time I click on a url, the browser freezes up momentarily and then loads the page and this is constant and I have the feeling is because of plugin-container.exe running in the background. Please advice. Thanks!!
[email protected]

That process is from firefox, firefox now loads the plugins in another proccess.
Try to start firefox in safe mode to check if that process runs again.

What is the plugin-container.exe file? How do I get rid of it?I keep getting a 70% usage message about this plugin. I tried to delete it but then Firefox won't work.

What is the plugin-container.exe file? It seems to be using 70% of usage of my computer's memory. How do I get rid of it?

Plugin-container is an "out-of-process plugins" crash protection, see for more info the link, and if you want to disable try the analytical info :
[http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins Plugin-container and out-of-process plugins]
thank you
Please mark "Solved" the answer that really solve the problem, to help others with a similar problem.

Sometimes a plugin-container.exe instance starts hogging a ton of memory -- I would like to know which plugin is running inside that plugin-container without having to one-by-one disable the plugins. Which process called plugin-container.exe?

As described above, I have several instances of plugin-container.exe running, which is OK. It would make me feel safer to know which plugins are running inside each of these, since I would be better able to know whether there is malware running inside one of them, or which website might have made the process start hogging memory.
I am a power user, I usually have 80-100 tabs open, and of course it is hard to track the website or plugin down without having to waste a lot of time.
Could you provide in future releases this information?
Is it already available under one of the about: pages (e.g. config, plugins, memory, etc?)

Thanks Efreak! 
Maybe I was not clear. I usually have 4-5 plugin-container.exe processes running. I know now that the large one that hogs is the Adobe Flash player, but, for example I don't know which plug-in initiated the other plugin-container.exe instances. 
One of them actually says "googletalkplugin.exe" if you dig deep, which is OK. At least I know why the plugin-container.exe was started. But there are other instances that are just there and there is no way to figure out which plug-in initiated it. 
This would of course also help figure out if it is really the Adobe Flash plug in that is hogging all the memory, OR even if within Firefox in the about: pages one could figure out which TABS are using which plug-ins.
Like that you could freely choose to terminate the process directly, or close the TAB. 
1) What I am looking for is a way to determine which plug-in is running under which instance of plugin-container.exe 
2) Additionally it would be great to have a summary of which TABS are using which plugins (e.g. in the about:plugins page or yet another about: page)
 
Thank you

The plugin-container.exe is using 100% cpu usage???

After I open a few different pages or tabs within the pages, the plugin-container.exe max's my cpu usage and the system hangs horribly. It comes back and then hangs again. The plugin-container is reasonable new, because I don't recall seeing it in the Task Manager. Is there a way to fix this?? I know it's related to some apple piece of garbage software that I could totally do without if that helps.
Thanks

Plugin-container was introduced in Firefox 3.6.4 to run certain plugins in isolation from the browser, so that when an offending plugin crashes, it does not crash the entire browser, just the tab with the offending plugin. There is information about plugin-container and a method to disable plugin-container in the following article: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins
If you disable plugin-container, your entire browser will crash if a plugin crashes. If you choose to disable plugin-container, restart Firefox to be sure that plugin-container closes; once started, plugin-container remains open until you restart Firefox.

How do I disable the plugin check at Firefox Version 18 or higher startup?

This thread carries on from a discussion about How do I disable the plugin check at Firefox startup? As clearly Tylerdowner did not like my previous message and so would like me to obviously start a whole new thread to find out what’s going on.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/938821
Tyler: I am still looking for support and so are the other 83 people who have this problem. Hence why I am here, not to have to start another thread, not to have a go at you or just to run around further to get a clear, straight forward answer. I am now back to running Version 12 (which, has not solved the problem), with up-to-date plugins which are all supported.
Don’t fob us off, PLEASE HELP. Unless I am very much mistaken, this is the place we are meant to find help, right? Not to be completely blown off because somebody says something you don’t like. Perhaps someone better suited to this will help. I’ll follow on from then with MY problem from Tyler’s final comment as it is highly relevant:
Tylerdowner: Rumor Control, if you are running Firefox 18 with up to date plugins, then you are having a different problem than this thread is about. This is for Firefox 3.6 users who have old plugins, not those with updated software.

I should also add this info for all to see clear as part of my question (can be seen in More system details too):
I liked that version, was the first ever FireFox browser I tried and because of it made it my number 1 browser. There have been a heck of a lot from 3.6 to 18 though I think we’d all agree. Progress can and often is messy, but worth it.
Which is fine except mine, a different version, up-to-date plugins – and I’ve still same problem as these guys. It’s exactly the same even for me who has updated: How do we get rid of the Plugin Check Screen every time we start FireFox? I know I am up-to-date – as it tells me every single time!
I agree everyone should be up-to-date with the software and this may very well be the case that solves a lot of people with lower versions – yet I can say I updated from version 12 to the latest 18, spent the time getting half a dozen different updates as it wanted (all of which are supported according to the link you provided) plugins and yet I am still having the same problem as users with 3.6 and older plugins! Went back to version 12.0 and I am getting the problem since installing version 18.
Therefore from the fact I’m still getting the popup every time telling me everything is updated and safe, which is lovely to know, still doesn’t change the fact it won’t go away! Not a major problem but it is getting tedious now every single time.
Like I say I am willing to wait and see if this gets fixed anyway which to be fair, FireFox seem to do a lot better than the competition. If it doesn’t though I’d still rather go back to an older version just to be rid of it! But not even that is now working to be gone of it! It’s gotten that ridiculous for me now too!
:)

Why does FireFox freeze and the only way to unfreeze it is to open the task manager and close the plugin-container.exe file??? It has been happening more and more often and it is getting VERY AGGRAVATING!!!!!

When Firefox does freeze (not responding appears in parentheses in the page tab) I am not able to access any of the webpages (the entire webpage is hidden behind a vaguely white transparent foreground) and more often than not any files I might be downloading are stopped before the entire file has been transferred - which means that I have to start those downloads from the beginning AGAIN. This has been happening for quite some time and I AM SICK AND TIRED OF IT HAPPENING!!
If it continues to happen for much longer I will swear off FireFox FOREVER!!!!! Either a program works or it does not work and lately Firefox has not worked worth a damn...........
The ONLY way to force Firefox to allow me to access it is for me to end the plugin-container.exe file process using Task Manager. Clearing there is a SERIOUS problem here that has not been resolved - why not???

The pluging container opens up unnecessary copies as the cookies/history are cleared, this is a known issue, it might be what you are seeing, and it is hoped to be fixed in some future release of firerox.
There are some hangs affecting some users, with symptoms being high cpu usage, occurring as bookmark changes or syncing is in progress, there is a work around for that.
Firefox hanging as you close it see:
*[[firefox hangs]]
* [[firefox is already running but is not responding]]

Is it possible to disable the plugin-container in Firefox 14?

With an older version of Firefox, I was able to disable the plugin-container by typing in 'about:config' in the toolbar, typing 'ipc' in the search bar on that page, then changing the value of the executable (or whatever it's called) for the plugin-container to 'false', and, finally, restarting Firefox.
However, even after doing that in Firefox 14, it still runs when I use Flash applications. Does anyone know another way to disable the plugin-container? Because in my honest opinion the plugin just causes more lag since it takes up a lot of memory (at one point it was at 100,000 k, which is ridiculous).
Sorry if someone has posted this question before.

I actually found that Flash Player started functioning normally again after I disabled protected mode. I tried toggling the plugin container on and off with protected mode off in flash, and it made no difference in the videos lagging.
In all honesty, this really isn't a problem with Firefox and the plugin container. It's a problem with Adobe using the public to beta test a feature that shouldn't be published just quite yet.

How to solve hanging problem caused by the plugin-container.exe (instruction 0x0276609c)?

To whom it may concern,
I am not sure about the cause, however I have experienced hanging of the programme repeatedly. I have not been able to solve it otherwise than by ending the process via task manager (I am using Firefox 4.0.1 running on Win XP SP2). After doing so, a message appeared saying this:
"sw: plugin-container.exe application error
Instruction at the address 0x0276609c referred to the memory address 0x00000014. Impossible to execute memory operation: read. End the programme by clicking on the OK button."
I am sorry if my translation is not correct enough. I have tried to google the instruction number, but to no avail. Thus I have decided to ask you for help.
Thank you for your comprehension
JR

Try going to http://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck and see if your plugins are out of date.

After a personas update, FF is unresponsive bc of plugincontainer error, so i have to have 2 FF open to have a browswer that works. How do i fix the plugin container so it launches right the 1st time?

Started happening after the latest personas update. Whenever i 1st launch FF it just becomes completely unresponsive, i can't even close it w/out having to use task manager. However if i keep the 1st FF open and launch it again, the 2nd FF works just fine- no problems what so ever! BUT i can not close the 1st FF (using task manager) w/out it automatically closing the 2nd. Which means i have to have two browsers open to have just one working one.When i tried to see what the heck is the problem with the 1st FF it says it's a plugin-container.exe error- so how is it that the 2nd launched browser works???
I created a dump file for anyone smart enough to analyze it- but have nooo idea how or where to upload it lol.

Look in your device manager and find out what brand of hard drive you have (Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba etc.) Go to the manufacturer's website and download their hard drive certification test (free). Run the test on your drive so you can feel that it is not the hard drive. Then run the HP memory test from your utility partition (I think you hit F10 while starting the machine). There is always a chance that your connector to your hard drive is bad or the contacts are dirty but that is an outside shot.
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Does version 3.6 still have the plugin-container.exe?

Plugin-container.exe causes me massive problems with hangs, crashes, cpu usage in the 90-100% range and it seems to force the cooling fan to run at maximum constantly. It makes the computer useless as anything other than an extremely noisy paperweight and trying to solve the problem has not worked. Therefore i want to downgrade to a version which does not have this awful thing.
Does the oldest supported version (3.6.0 from what i can see) have plugin container.exe?

See also:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins

How do I disable the Plugin check at startup in 17.0.2 esr?

In testing the latest 17.0.2esr I keep getting the plugin check at startup. Even logged in as a Standard user with no Admin rights I still get this page which makes no sense since Standard users do not have permissions to install software. This is supposed to be the Enterprise version of Firefox which in my mind means that all updates and controls are left to the dicretion of an Administrator and not an end user. Is this a bug in ESR? How do I eliminate this?

This can happen if there are plugins installed that are block-listed by Mozilla.
* https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/

How do I disable the Plugin Update tab when I start Firefox?

Whenever I start Firefox, a second tab entitled "Plugin Update" opens. I do not recall enabling it anywhere, and I would like to disable it, but I do not know how. Might you be able to point me in the right direction?

Type '''about:config''' in the URL bar and hit Enter. 
''If you see the warning, you can confirm that you want to access that page.''
Pref = '''plugins.update.notifyUser''' -- if it shows as True, double-click that pref to toggle it to '''False'''

How do I disable the plugin check at Firefox startup?

Starting in the last day or two, every time I start Firefox, in addition to my homepage, I get a nuisance tab that is checking my plugins. I need to disable this stupid function or I will have to discontinue using Mozilla Firefox after 20 years as a faithful Mozilla user. I am happy with, and have no intentions of upgrading, my version of Firefox (3.6.17). I also have no intentions of upgrading my Flash plugin as newer versions are incompatible with an online activity in which I engage.
I have followed instructions in the user forum for changing the status of plugins.update.notifyUser from true to false in "about:config", but it apparently resets itself to true. None of the user forum suggestions correct this problem. If this unwanted, stupid tab cannot be disabled, I guess I will have to abandon Mozilla, both for Firefox and Thunderbird, and pursue options that do not force unwanted content on the user.
In addition, it seems impossible to actually speak to anyone at Mozilla about the problem. So hopefully someone will answer this question with a solution to the problem.

I have had this problem too. I tried both methods posted by other users and was unsuccessful. It is so annoying that I will no longer be using Firefox. Goodbye.

Plugin-container.exe *32 still shows up

Hi everyone,
I had a question about FlashPlayerPlugin_11_4_402_287.exe *32 and why it is two times in the task manager, but I read some others problems like this and get the answer, thanks.
I disabled the plugin-container.exe in about:config and changed the value to "false" but it still appears in TM.
Can I disable it or not?
My OS is W7 (64 bits) and I use Firefox
Thanks for your time.

Hello Muller, sorry I am not Everyone, however I do have the same issue as if Firefox is not slow enough as it is, and to add to the frustration Flash Player crashes frequently over and over, no matter how many times I Report the Crash and Reload the Page, still does not work, then I have to Exit Firefox and re-launch, click to restore History right in the middle of my work. Very disruptive.
And before Adobe asks, yes to updating Firefox, and constanly checking for updates of Windows 7, 64-bit, my Anti-Virus and other Security features. The current Adobe Flash Player version as the file name shows 11.4.402.287 as of 8 & 9 Oct 2012.
Of course the answer maybe in the file name after .EXE of *32 for 32 bit running on a 64 bit system. I do not have this problem with using Google Chrome v 22.0.1229.94 and possibly may work better for yourself as well.
And I do not use I.E. v 9.0.8112.16421 64-bit Edition, never have liked I.E., slower than Firefox. And to think after 30 yrs of using computers something would work properly 98% of the time.
Doc

How do I disable the plugin-container.exe? It is eating a lot of memory.

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