You can manage videos that play in plugins by changing from allowing all sites to use Flash automatically to requiring your approval to run. You would make that change on the Add-ons page. Either:

• Commmand+Shift+a
• "3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Add-ons

In the left column, click Plugins. Then switch the permission for Shockwave Flash to "Ask to Activate".

Now, when you visit a site that wants to use the Flash, you should see a notification icon in the address bar (looks like a Lego block) and one of the following: a link in a black rectangle in the page or an infobar sliding down between the toolbar area and the page. You can just ignore it until you find that you need to play something, then enable Flash.

What do you think? Is that enough control?

Note that for HTML5 media there is the media.autoplay.enabled pref that you can toggle to false on the about:config page.

See also:

• Flash Block: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/flashblock/
• Click to Play per-element: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/click-to-play-per-element/

jscher2000,

Thank you so much! This fixed the issue and your directions were super easy to follow.

Best,

M