308562 - (ShockwaveInstall) Shockwave Player installation never takes affect

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit Graveyard :: Plugin Finder Service, defect)

Description

[ljlego3]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b4) Gecko/20050908 Firefox/1.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b4) Gecko/20050908 Firefox/1.4

Shockwave Player is a well-known and widely used format for creating interactive
content.  It is not bundled with the Firefox software package, so you need to
install it using the plugin tool.  But when you install it, it doesn't work in
the browser.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to site above.  It contains Shockwave content.
2. Click Install Missing Plugins.
3. Choose Macromedia Shockwave Player 10.1 (only option).
4. Agree to EULA.
Note: In installation, it offers you the option to install Yahoo toolbar. 
UNCLICK THE CHECBOX!  It will not work in Firefox, and furthermore, it will
create computer problems.
5. You have now installed Shockwave Player.
Actual Results:  
Firefox tells me to restart the software for changes to take affect.  So I close
and reopen the program.  And the browser tells me to do it all over again!

Expected Results:  
The browser should have had the capability to display Shockwave content after
the installation.

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

On some XP systems it does not work unless you run Firefox in the Win 2000
compability mode. See Bug 225894.
	

Comment 2

[Jesse Ruderman]

Did you install Firefox using the Firefox installer or did you just unzip a zip
build?  I know the Flash installer doesn't look for zip builds of Firefox, so I
wouldn't be surprised if the Shockwave installer had the same problem.

Comment 3

[u45550]

I have used the installer and I do have the same problem with the same build. 

Comment 4

[u45550]

Do you have the adblock extension installed? After disabling it, I didn't have any more problems!

Comment 5

[kosila]

adblock extension

Comment 6

[Robert Claypool]

I'm having essentially this problem on Windows 7. Shockwave 10.3 is currently installed and I run the installer for 10.6, and it doesn't take.

Comment 7

[Jenny Holsten]

I have Win 7 on my new PC, but since installation of mozilla sites with grafics like on http://www.gutscheinpony.de didn't work normally.

Comment 8

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

Bug 836415 has now removed the Plugin Finder Service (PFS) from Firefox. As a result, I'm closing all the remaining PFS bugs.

If you're getting this bugmail for an ancient PFS bug, the basic summary of the world today is:

* NPAPI plugins are a dying technology
* PFS was already restricted to assisting with only the 4 most common plugins
* Sites commonly provide their own UI for install a required plugin
* Mozilla is generally focusing on  improving the web platform so that proprietary plugins are not required.

(Note that "plugins" are a completely separate from "browser extensions", such at those found on addons.mozilla.org. The latter are not going anywhere, and are not impacted by the removal of PFS.)