One of the links relating to disabling protected mode:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Flash_Player_11.3_Protected_Mode_-_Windows

You mention considering a macro, another option would be writing a batch file. I am not aware that anyone has written an addon (Or even if that is possible). It is of course fairly easy just to keep copies of both mms.cfg files and rename one as required, that is likely to be the method most will use for turning this on and off.

Protected mode has caused problems for over a year now and I am not really optimistic that it is going to get any fixes. Firefox Aurora has an experimental crash reporter that should help with getting to the bottom of some of the Flash issues but I have no idea when or if that will remove to the ordinary Firefox releases.

N.B. For general information one of the threads about Flash Crashes is /questions/962745 but it is probably better looking at

• Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems
• Troubleshoot issues with plugins like Flash or Java to fix common Firefox problems
• Flash 11.3 doesn't load video in Firefox
• Send plugin crash reports to help Mozilla improve Firefox
• Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again

Hello John, thanks for the quick response. Your first link claimed that both Firefox and Adobe are working on a solution to protected mode causing crashes. I guess the answer to my question of "when will I know it's been fixed" is that we will all just have to keep checking the "fixed in this release" sections of those updates.

For the moment it seems that I'll either have to keep toggling protected mode or depend on Windows 7 and Avira Antivirus to protect me.

So I guess you've kinda "fixed" my problem, and someone else is supposedly fixing "the" problem.

Regards, Ian

The protected mode is I understand more of a sandbox rather than say AV security. It should help protect the system from crashes or unwanted modifications & exploits.

I believe the best you can do security wise is

• Use trusted AV etc. software and a Firewall
• Keep all software up-to-date
  • This includes FlashPlayer as often the updates include security Fixes.

Here is some techi background info on the protected mode. Note this is a Windows feature and only on systems from XP onwards, so XP & Mac users do not benefit from this (or suffer from any unwanted side effects it may have).

• http://blogs.adobe.com/asset/2012/06/inside-flash-player-protected-mode-for-firefox.html