From TenFourFox back to Firefox Can I downgrade

Now for the interesting bit: TenFourFox, like Firefox, does not support most plug-ins. Unless you are prone to headaches (in which case don't) you can read about that here:

http://code.google.com/p/tenfourfox/wiki/PluginsNoLongerSupported

But there is a workaround!

Open TenFourFox and type in the address bar: about:config (no spaces) and click return. This gives you a warning that it might harm the application. Ignore that and click on 'I'll be careful, I promise' and you get the config file that you can edit - with great care.

Look/search (scroll down) for: tenfourfox.plugins.enabled

Set it to true. (Double click it to toggle it)

Now close TenFourFox, open it again, and Flash will now work, as it now uses the plug-ins that Safari has stored.

I am using Flash 10.1.102.64 in TenFourFox and it works just fine.

Should obviously be an Apple Pie!

You're welcome Patt!

This worked great on my G5, but on my G4 where I'm running the pc7450 version of TenFourFox, there is no tenfourfox.plugins.enabled parameter. Anybody any idea of the G4 equivalent?

Hi Paul, what version of TFF is on the G4?

TFF 24 finally truly finished off enabling plugins vs TFF 17 where you could still do it in about config. I downgraded back to TFF 17.

🙂

Limnos wrote:

TFF 24 finally truly finished off enabling plugins vs TFF 17 where you could still do it in about config. I downgraded back to TFF 17.

But missing the security patches of the 24, so not safe. You could run the 17 side by side with the 24, using the Profiles Manager, or this Add-on (haven't tried it) ProfileSwitcher https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/profileswitcher/

That way, you could run the 17 just for safe Flash, like YouTube, and the 24 for ordinary browsing.

Can you confirm running two works? I seem to recall a while back trying to run FF and TFF at the same time and it complained about not being allowed to run two copies of the application at the same time. I think it was more a matter of the same library files were in use. I guess I could run one, then quit and run the other, but that removes a fair degree of spontaneity to browsing. The other main drawback is plugin and extension compatibility which I posted about a month or two back. When I installed TFF24 it wanted to upgrade my extensions which I allowed. When I found I had to revert because many of my favorite sites absolutely required Flash and none of the "workarounds" worked, I discovered the upgrades didn't work in TFF17 and some older versions were no longer available.

I pondered using an Applescript to move library files and profiles back and forth and starting up the appropriate version of TFF but it sounded like a headache in programming.

I don't know that I am super worked up about security. I don't do online banking or such. Almost never use my credit card online. Do 100% of my activity at home over an Ethernet connection. If you see somebody posting stupid things here under my name let me know and then I'll start worrying. 🙂

The profile manager thing looks interesting but I'll have to see if it extends to managing different versions of plugins.

If you're asking if running the two concurrently works, I can't confirm that, but if you do a search you'll come up with some different ideas about running them concurrently. Here's one, but it's from '09 and I have no idea if it will work in TFF, although I don't see why not. And here's anotherfairly complete guide to doing this.

You use the separate Profile associated with each version from the Profile manager. Actually, now that I think about it, I ran into some problems with that when I tried doing it with TFF because the Profile manager was somehow broken there. Needed some work. But maybe they've gotten around to fixing that bug.

I got pretty involved with this for a while and then decided to abandon it, since I hardly use the G3, where I have TFF. Anyway, here's a thread at x704.net that, off and on, goes into this issue. MonkeyBoy seemed to have the best handle on it. You could always reopen that discussion, if you need some help with this.

I also raised it at the TFF forum, where I was trying to do this from the command line, which should be possible. But the TFF developer kind of let it hang in midstream, either because he didn't have the time, or because he just didn't know enough.

And maybe that Firefox Add-on I linked above, Profile Switcher, will simplify things.

I still think it's possible. And, while there may not have been that much at stake security wise between the 24, when it was first issued, and the 17, it's now up to 24.3.0, and I think as time goes by the security vulnerabilities will become more pronounced.

The profile manager thing looks interesting but I'll have to see if it extends to managing different versions of plugins.

Each Profile is self-contained and will have its own set of plug-ins, or lack of them.

Thanks for all the information WZZZ! I will give it a go, after I have fully backed up my system. 😉

I did try the Profile Manager add-on. It basically seems to save typing in the command line statement to get TFF to display the FF Profiles Manager (also hidden in FF apparently). There's no actual documentation on how to use it though which is where I back up before exploring more. It seems to let you run multiple profiles at once??? At least it seems to ask if you want to close the current profile before opening a new one. One thing to note in case you try it, you have to double click to get the buttons to activate, vs. the typical single click of a Mac.

Your URL for the first document on running multiple FF versions didn't work (an extra http at the end) so here it is in case somebody else tries: http://sonnygill.net/mac/mac-multiple-firefox-profiles/

Great. Let me know how it works out. If it does work, especially the Add-on, I might go back and give it another try on the G3.