Because 3.6.4 had some security fixes, and you won't want to skip further fixes, there is a better option.

You'll want to disable all Crash Protection as follows:

• In the Location bar, type about:config and press Enter .
• The about:config "This might void your warranty!" warning page may appear.
• Click I'll be careful, I promise! , to continue to the about:config page.
• Type dom.ipc.plugins into the Filter textbox.
• Double click or right click and choose Toggle on all true/false options (other than dom.ipc.plugins.timeoutSecs) so that they are set to false.
• You might need to restart for changes to take effect.

plugin-container.exe shouldn't be used anymore with this change.

If you do have this problem, it would be appreciated if you could post your Flash version (if the problem is triggered by Flash), AV software, and what sites(s) trigger the high CPU usage.

This new process associated with with the recent Firefox Update to 3.6.4 is just hammering my system, with Plugin-Container.exe stealing about 60% CPU time from other applications on XP SP3. This problem only started with the upgrade that Firefox was nagging me to install and I followed the Firefox application instructions telling me to reinstall/upgrade Adobe Flash (even though I already had the most recent version, as I do with all my extensions and plugins. This version isn't ready for release. How do I roll back to the previous version of Firefox? Thanks.

If you must downgrade: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.6.3&os=win&lang=en-US

Download, Close Firefox and install; no need to uninstall previous versions first, although you may if you wish.

Then disable updates as described above.

Edit: To be clear, this is a highly undesirable procedure as you will be vulnerable to multiple security issues that will increase as you miss future Firefox updates. Try my procedure for disabling crash protection (OOPP) first.

If I roll back my version of firefox, will I lose pages that I already have open and stored in memory (which would normally be available through the "restore session" option, since I had to forcequit firefox when it paralyzed my system)?

Thanks, David

I ended up trying the fix rjohnson19 posted in thread https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/706123 at 15:19 PST. So far I haven't had any problems with Plugin-Container.exe, since it is no longer running. It's good that you can kill that process off without having to completely roll back to the previous version if Firefox. I hope that I still get the security advantages 3.6.4 claims to offer. Thanks for the help.

Glad there's a way to be rid of that awful plugin-container program. Not thrilled about voiding the warranty, but as with all free things you get what you pay for.

I used Rjohnson19's suggested fix for disabling (the severely borked) plugin-container.exe, and while it DID kill the process off, it hasn't fixed the system resource hogging issues that only crept up with Firefox 3.6.4.

I think the only 'true' fix is to cut our losses, take the temporary chance with security issues, and roll back to the previous version. At least we can wait it out and manually update when a newer version is released.

For what its worth, I haven't seen any issues using the 3.6.4 plugin features.

Make sure Flash is up to date (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/) and consider reverting this workaround when future Firefox updates resolve issues as they are discovered. If you didn't know, the goal of 3.6.4 is to reduce crashes from certain popular plugins. You've probably experienced crashes on various sites due to plugins and you'll continue to with this feature off.

No one mentioned what plugin you were using when plugin-container.exe CPU spikes. Flash, Silverlight, or Quicktime? If you don't know, what pages cause the problem?

If you do revert, its the same as an upgrade; you won't lose any settings include session restore.

"I think the only 'true' fix is to cut our losses, take the temporary chance with security issues, and roll back to the previous version. At least we can wait it out and manually update when a newer version is released. "

I'd still try the above-mentioned rjohnson19 fix before you roll back. It may not work for everyone, but if it doesn't work you can always punch your 'chute and reinstall 3.6.3.

rjohnson19 said: "No one mentioned what plugin you were using when plugin-container.exe CPU spikes. Flash, Silverlight, or Quicktime? If you don't know, what pages cause the problem? "

Two thing happened when I updated 3.6.3 to 3.6.4: I ran the update exe, which seemed to go fine. Then restarting Firefox I immediately start to get excessive usage on Plugin-Container.exe process just using Flash. I never had a chance to test Quicktime or other sites or applications because Firefox was unusable. Who knows how many different extensions may cause CPU problems?

If you're still having issues with 3.6.4 and the Flash plugin, please take a look at Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again and increase the timeout as indicated.

"Make sure Flash is up to date (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/) and consider reverting this workaround when future Firefox updates resolve issues as they are discovered. If you didn't know, the goal of 3.6.4 is to reduce crashes from certain popular plugins. You've probably experienced crashes on various sites due to plugins and you'll continue to with this feature off.

No one mentioned what plugin you were using when plugin-container.exe CPU spikes. Flash, Silverlight, or Quicktime? If you don't know, what pages cause the problem?"

Hmm, seems Firefox pulled the same problem during my response and it didn't go through.

Simply put -- I checked, and all plugins aside from Java (which will not update due to an unresolved error on their side) are up to date. Had no issues prior to 3.6.4.

As for what plugins cause CPU spikes, it is just the browser itself, it seems. It jumps from 3-4% to 60%+ just upon launching the program. No matter what homepage I've changed to (tried several that are devoid of Flash, etc), it does the same. 3.6.4 is just devouring the processor on its own.

Same issues all around here, and, am I the only who's Internet Explorer has been all but borked with 3.6.4. as well? It endlessly loads, eventually finishing if I let it sit for 5 minutes or more.

I never use IE, but that didn't happen prior to this newest release.

I still use 3.6.3, tried 3.6.4 I often have lagging and sluggish problem with Facebook games 3.6.3 works fine with me with the latest adobe flash and all my plug-ins imho just stick with 3.6.3 in the option disable auto update firefox for the moment just wait for a better version better than 3.6.4 till they fix the bugs.

Tiamant, did you try increasing the timeout as mentioned in Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again?

For what it's worth, I was having the exact same issues as everyone has been reporting.

Just uninstalled, and then reinstalled version 3.6.3, and everything is back to normal. Functioning exactly as it did prior to updating to 3.6.4.

I don't know why Mozilla continues to pin this on add-ons and extensions, or something clashing with their new plugin-container, as it's pretty damn crystal clear that the problems -- from browser speed to CPU killing -- lies in the client itself. It's buggy and shouldn't have been released in its current state. Judging by the volume of people having identical issues, this is just a fact.

Will hold out for 3.6.5.

DITTO! Same problems with the plugin-container.exe. Geez I don't have time to beta test. Please don't roll out buggy updates as general release for us to test. Now I have to spend more time downgrading. Firefox has always been my favorite browser. But I will start using one of the other free browsers if this is the future for Firefox.

I am so surprised the thread on this problem I was watching was closed as solved. It is anything but.

Not only did 3.6.4 hose my Zone Alarm, but then wanted to update DIVX and hosed all of that as well.

I downgraded to 3.6.3 and now use 1/3rd less memory in FF.

Plugin-container has some serious problems and some folks here seem to be in denial. It really should be looked into.

~Bob

Try updating to Firefox 3.6.6, which should set the timeout higher.

Man, what a ridiculous set of updates.

3.6.3 still seems to be the only stable release. I just updated to 3.6.6, and while the plugin-container nonsense seems to be rectified, the CPU spikes and browser page speeds are still out of control.

Downgraded once more.