Thunderbird Tip: Make Sure Plugins Are Disabled
Firefox and Thunderbird share several components which makes it easier to develop for both applications but can also lead to side effects that produce issues that should better be avoided.
One of those effects are plugins that are automatically loaded in the Thunderbird email client. Plugins? You know, stuff like Google Update, iTunes Application Detector, JAVA or Quicktime are also loaded in Thunderbird with a high probability that they are not used by the user, ever.
Last time I checked, my Thunderbird plugin list had 12 different plugins enable which was quite the shock, considering that I did not need a single one of them.
I made the decision to disable all plugins, mainly because I did not need a single one. But there are other reasons why it may make sense to disable them.
Plugins are loaded with the email client which means that they occupy memory even if they are not needed. Disabling them will free up some memory and maybe even improve performance which is always a good thing.
Then there is security which can be a reason as well. Plugins sometimes have security vulnerabilities which means that not only the web browser but also the email client may be vulnerable to exploits.
Most users should disable all plugins in Thunderbird. There may be some that use the client to display feeds or web pages. Those users may want to keep some plugins enabled, Flash for instance to view Flash contents. The majority of plugins installed and enabled however are not likely needed at all.
To disable or enable plugins users need to click on Tools > Add-Ons in the Thunderbird menu and switch to the plugins sidebar item there. Plugins that are disabled show that in brackets behind the name. The button disable disables the plugin and enable will enable it again if the need arises.
While that gets rid of plugins at the time, Thunderbird may pick up plugins that are updated or installed anew.
The better option in my opinion is to disable plugins completely in Thunderbird:
- Select Tools > Options from the menu and there Advanced > General and click on Config Editor.
- Search for plugin.scan.plid.all and set it to 0 with a double-click.
- Search for plugin.state.nppdf and set it to 0 as well.
- Search for plugin.state.npqtplugin and set it to 0.
Doing so should remove all plugins from the email client so that none are displayed anymore when you open the add-on manager's plugin section.
You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
I think its thunderbird
It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
You are a god – thank you!
thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Great tip! Thanks!
Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.
Thanks.
Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Thank you, this worked !!!!
Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!