644170 - Windows Live Photo Gallery has installed itself as a plugin in Firefox 4 after updating windows.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 454769

(Firefox :: Extension Compatibility, defect)

Description

[Mike Hoye]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:2.0b13pre) Gecko/20110321 Firefox/4.0b13pre
Build Identifier: 

I've got a pristine, brand new machine here, and aside from the junk it shipped with I've installed only one program on it - Firefox 4. Which, don't get me wrong, I love very much. But after doing a Windows Update I suddenly have a "Windows Live(tm) Photo Gallery 15.4.3502.922" plugin in Firefox that I don't want, didn't ask for and only found because it's putting errors in my web console.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Buy a brand new computer
2. Use Internet Explorer for the only thing it's good for and download Firefox.
3. Install Firefox, then update your computer. 
4. Inspect Add-ons -> Plugins and mutter "um wut" to yourself.
Actual Results:  
Aside from the "Windows Live(tm) Photo Gallery 15.4.3502.922", the window only says "NPWLPG - Last Updated  September-23-10" which is probably why it's throwing errors. Seriously, I do a security update and Microsoft secretly installs a six-month old plugin for a program I don't use into my brand new browser built by a whole other company? That's not cool at all.

Expected Results:  
Not this.

I know this isn't Mozilla's fault, but I felt you should be notified.

Comment 1

[James]

Not all updates on Windows Update are security updates. Silverlight is also listed there, which is another plugin, and it isn't required to install. You can right click > hide in windows update if you don't want to install them.

Comment 2

[Ilhan Yumer]

There should be an option at Firefox where user will be asked whether he/she gives permission for that plugin. If those plugins play games again then Firefox updates should block those plugins.

Those plugins are **** and causes to slow down Firefox. I use a netbook.

Comment 3

[Ed Morley [:emorley]]

This is due to be added (hopefully soon), in bug 476430.

Comment 4

[Lozzy]

I'm not entirely sure the duplicate applies. From my brief scan of the posts it seems like that bug is only targeting extensions; plugins can't be checked at startup quite as easily as extensions.

Don't get me wrong though, I would dearly love for it to also apply to plugins if only to thwart Java's plugins from perpetually re-enabling themselves after each update.

Comment 5

[Ed Morley [:emorley]]

You are correct, I meant bug 454769, thanks for the spot.