Closed Bug 602795 Opened 14 years ago Closed 7 years ago

Add-ons manager should find and install updates for plugins

Categories

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, enhancement)

enhancement
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED WONTFIX
Future
Tracking Status
blocking2.0 --- -

People

(Reporter: scoobidiver, Unassigned)

References

()

Details

Attachments

(1 obsolete file)

Attached image Screenshot of AOM pane on 64-bit Windows (obsolete) —
Build: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:2.0b8pre) Gecko/20101007 Firefox/4.0b8pre

On 64-bit Windows, Add-ons manager has no inclusion of plugin check as it has on 32-bit Windows.
See the ref URL for the expected AOM pane look.
blocking2.0: --- → ?
This has nothing to do with 64 bit windows. The add-ons manager does not currently find and download updates for plugins
Severity: normal → enhancement
blocking2.0: ? → -
OS: Windows 7 → All
Hardware: x86_64 → All
Summary: [WOW64] add-ons manager has no inclusion of plugin check → Add-ons manager should find and install updates for plugins
Target Milestone: --- → Future
Attachment #481769 - Attachment is obsolete: true
> This has nothing to do with 64 bit windows. The add-ons manager does not
> currently find and download updates for plugins
I am not talking about that.
I am talking about bug 563135 that is not fixed for me.
(In reply to comment #2)
> > This has nothing to do with 64 bit windows. The add-ons manager does not
> > currently find and download updates for plugins
> I am not talking about that.
> I am talking about bug 563135 that is not fixed for me.

Given that we have nothing in the blocklist that would trigger what bug 563135 fixed you wouldn't see any effect from it. What remains is something we want to do in the future and do not now.
Blocks: 550048
No longer blocks: 563135
I would think we could also go back and include the plugin check internet page link at the top of the plugins pane/view if we're not going to bake it in.
This bug is somewhat a dupe of bug 613305 now.
This blocks Bug 566423 - Consider standardizing/normalizing navigator.plugins
(browser fingerprinting) 

Once this is done, we won't need need to expose full plugin version information
to web content just because of the plugins check.
Note that there are reports from people (bug 573699 comment 3) that think the "check for updates" button at the top (the wheel button) will also check their plugins, while it only checks the add-ons. It's now very confusing.

Current behaviour is confusing and pretends a false sense of security.

Why not make "check for updates" on the "plugins" tab of AOM redirect to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/

I think in earlier versions of Firefox, there was an update button redirecting to the plugin check...but it is gone now in FF 5.x
In tomorrows Firefox 6 there will be a link to the plugin check page. See also bug 656269.
(In reply to Henrik Skupin (:whimboo) from comment #12)
> In tomorrows Firefox 6 there will be a link to the plugin check page.
Thanks. That fixed the problem for me.
Depends on: 613305, 573699
This, with bug 613305 and bug 573699, could really improve security for users.
I gree with Marco. 
Not just security, but stability too. 
Since many users don't even care about their plugins they don't even bother to check them, but when Firefox crashes or hangs they blame Firefox.

This feature will improve stability and security.
Dão/Gervase: while fixing this one, can Bug 566423 be fixed at the same time? So then it doesn't show the full version of the plugins to all websites (Re: Browser fingerprinting)? For example, it will just show Flash v11. That's it.

Plugin 0: Shockwave Flash; Shockwave Flash 11; NPSWF32_11.dll; (Adobe Flash movie; application/x-shockwave-flash; swf) (FutureSplash movie; application/futuresplash; spl). 

instead of

Plugin 0: Shockwave Flash; Shockwave Flash 11.X Y; NPSWF32_11_X_Y_Z.dll; (Adobe Flash movie; application/x-shockwave-flash; swf) (FutureSplash movie; application/futuresplash; spl). 

Thanks.
(In reply to Vic from comment #18)
> Dão/Gervase: while fixing this one, can Bug 566423 be fixed at the same
> time?

Not at the same time, no, unless both bugs happen to be worked on simultaneously. Bug 566423 certainly needs a separate patch.
I asked a bunch of web devs about this and none of them realized that to upgrade their plugins they need to go to the plugins page and check for updates. For some of them the automatic flash updater hasn't been triggered so their swf plugin was crashing all of the time.

I would suggest that we create silent installers for plugins and store them somewhere (or obtain links from adobe etc.) This way all plugins could be automatically updated in the same way as extensions.

Considering the recent stability issues and the increase in security it would provide maybe this should be a higher priority?
Plugins are dead. Closing obsolete bug.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
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