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plugin container necessary in Firefox 4?

  • 4 respostas
  • 5 have this problem
  • 3 views
  • Last reply by Xircal

bdinger4
bdinger4
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Is plugin container still necessary when using the latest version of FF4? I'm aware of the posts about the memory issues of this program when running FF3.6.4. The thing is that the values of dom.ipc which were recommended to change back then using about:config are not the same at this point (at least on my machine). So i can't go that route.

Currently, plugin container is taking up around 164k and Firefox is taking up around 212k but that is because I'm listening to some music (Pandora). Normally, it's less. Plugin container required to listen to music?

I'd like to free up this memory if I could. So the question still is: Plugin container necessary on FF4? If not, how do we responsibly get rid of it?

Thanks!

Is plugin container still necessary when using the latest version of FF4? I'm aware of the posts about the memory issues of this program when running FF3.6.4. The thing is that the values of dom.ipc which were recommended to change back then using about:config are not the same at this point (at least on my machine). So i can't go that route. Currently, plugin container is taking up around 164k and Firefox is taking up around 212k but that is because I'm listening to some music (Pandora). Normally, it's less. Plugin container required to listen to music? I'd like to free up this memory if I could. So the question still is: Plugin container necessary on FF4? If not, how do we responsibly get rid of it? Thanks!

All Replies (4)

Xircal
Xircal
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My understanding of plugin_container.exe is that it runs as a kind of sandbox so that if a plugin crashes, it's contained within that module rather than having the whole browser crash.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You can disable the plugin-container process, but in that case Firefox will crash in case of a problem with the plugin. The plugin-container process isolates plugins from the Firefox process to prevent plugins from affecting Firefox.

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

bdinger4
bdinger4 Question owner
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Right. Thank you Cor-el and Xircal. Sounds like it wouldn't be a good idea for the present. I realized the memory used I stated in my first post was missing an integer. Should have been 1,640 k for plugin c and 2,210 for FF. Anyway, doesn't matter. We've just got to live with plugin container for now it appears.

Xircal
Xircal
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Your welcome.