Firefox 52: how to keep on using plugins
from ghacks;
http://www.ghacks.net/2017/02/03/firefox-52-how-to-keep-on-plugins/'Firefox 52 will be the first release version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser that will ship without support for NPAPI plugins.
The only exception is that Firefox 52 will support Adobe Flash.
You may want to block updates of Firefox 51.x to avoid being upgraded to Firefox 52.
It is not really advised as it means that security updates won't become available.
Provided that you want to stay with Firefox, the best course of action at the time is to switch from Firefox Stable to Firefox ESR before the update to Firefox 52.
Firefox 52.0 ESR will be released alongside Firefox 52.0. This is good news for anyone requiring plugins, as Firefox 52.0 ESR will continue to support plugins whereas Firefox 52.0 won't.
A full Extended Support Release cycle lasts seven full releases. This means that you will be able to use plugins in Firefox ESR until March 2018.
Another option that you have is to install a Firefox ESR release next to Firefox Stable, and use it exclusively for sites and services that require plugins."
'
Step 1: Update channel-prefs.js
First thing you do is update the file channel-prefs.js. You find the file in the Firefox installation directory on your system.
The default installation directories are
32-bit Firefox Windows -- C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\
64-bit Firefox Windows -- C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\
Linux -- /usr/lib/firefox-version
Mac Os X -- /Applications/Firefox.app
You find the file under defaults\prefs\,
e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\defaults\prefs\channel-prefs.js
Open the file in a plain text editor, and replace the line
pref("app.update.channel", "release");
with
pref("app.update.channel", "esr");
Step 2: Modify update-settings.ini
firefox without plugins solution
The second file that you need to modify is update-settings.ini. It is located in the root folder of the Firefox installation, e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox.
Change the line
ACCEPTED_MAR_CHANNEL_IDS=firefox-mozilla-release
to
ACCEPTED_MAR_CHANNEL_IDS=firefox-mozilla-esr
and save the file.
'
'Mike notes that you should make the change as close to the release of Firefox 52 ESR as possible. The release is on March 7, 2017.
Another option that you have is to install Firefox ESR directly on your system, and start using it. The new installation will pick up the profile that you used up until now.
Please note though that Firefox 45.x ESR may not support certain features yet that Mozilla implemented in Firefox 46 to 51. Some add-ons or features may not be yet available because of the nature of ESR releases.'
