I have Shockwave Flash (which when you click "check to see if your plugins are up to date" its called Adobe Flash Player) and a Java Plugin. I don't have Adobe Reader. I found out you cannot search for the Adobe Reader plugin. So this plugin is most likely Adobe who put that in Firefox automatically, or Firefox automatically blocks it.

Firefox and many other companies decided to dump Adobe because it is insecure. So that may be why you cannot update these plugins.

So, what i did was uninstall Adobe Reader and Flash Player off of the computer entirely, and then I searched for the Shockwave Flash 19.0.0.226 plugin in Google. That will install the Flash Player on the computer and the plug-in. I installed that, and I installed Foxit Reader on my computer, which is an excellent replacement to Adobe Reader. It's way faster too, by the way, but Foxit Reader has no relation to Firefox i don't think ;). So hopefully that answers your question.

Note: Edge on Win10 does not use ActiveX version but its own Flash.

Flash: Grab the uninstaller from here: Uninstall Flash Player | Windows Uninstall Flash Player | Mac

Then reinstall the latest version.

Flash Player Version 19.0.0.226
https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html Note: Windows users should download the ‘’’active_x’’’ for “Internet Explorer,” and the ‘’’plugin’’’ for “Plugin-based browsers” (like Firefox).

Adobe still offers Flash 18.0.0.255 as its extended support release further down

Shockwave Director: Shockwave Standalone Installer / Uninstaller{web link} Shockwave Director Version 12.2.1.171 http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/

Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape: Adobe Reader Version 2015.009.20069 Note: McAfee Security is offered in the download.

If the Application Initialization error occurs when you start the Adobe Reader or Flash installer program, it may indicate a problem with the Windows installer. Sometimes deferred changes (the ones that require you to restart Windows) accumulate to the point that Windows installer no longer works correctly. In that case, shutting down Windows and starting up again resolves the problem and then you can try installing again. Of course, if that doesn't help, then you have a different issue...

Sauceman said

So this plugin is most likely Adobe who put that in Firefox automatically, or Firefox automatically blocks it. Firefox and many other companies decided to dump Adobe because it is insecure. So that may be why you cannot update these plugins.

Mozilla is the company that makes the browser we know as Firefox since it was at version 0.8 (as it was Firebird and Phoenix before).

Mozilla has not dumped the use of any Plugins however if you were to use the Win64 Firefox only the Flash Player is white listed to run in Win64 Firefox currently.

Mozilla has currently blocked (soft block, click to activate) the previous updates of Flash Player due to it being affected by critical exploits in most versions since Dec 2014 as only the 19.0.0.226 and 18.0.0.255 ESR are the current for Windows and not soft blocked.

Also Plugins are not actually installed in Firefox like Extensions and Themes (complete) are but are on system (whether on Windows, Mac OSX or Linux) so the Firefox browser does not do Plugin updates.

So now I have a question, mainly to help those who have this question: Why when I installed iTunes on my computer, iTunes automatically added the "iTunes application detector" plugin into Firefox? It's the same for Microsoft Office and other programs. I understand now that it's not in Firefox itself, but they sure make it look like they did. It is annoying, I just tell it to never activate and I just ignore it.

Type about:plugins in the Location (address) bar. This will show what Plugins Firefox is making use of on your system and where those Plugins are located as they are not installed into Firefox.

The about:plugins and other about: urls are listed in about:about

Hi Sauceman, Firefox checks for available plugins in a couple different places, so other applications know they can add a plugin to Firefox by using one of them:

• Registry key(s)
• Shared folder(s)

Setting unwanted plugins to "Never Activate" is the easiest way to disable them; manually deleting them or trying to blind Firefox to plugins in the registry may cause problems.

FredMcD said

Note: Edge on Win10 does not use ActiveX version but its own Flash. Flash: Grab the uninstaller from here: Uninstall Flash Player | Windows Uninstall Flash Player | Mac Then reinstall the latest version. Flash Player Version 19.0.0.226
https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html Note: Windows users should download the ‘’’active_x’’’ for “Internet Explorer,” and the ‘’’plugin’’’ for “Plugin-based browsers” (like Firefox). Adobe still offers Flash 18.0.0.255 as its extended support release further down Shockwave Director: Shockwave Standalone Installer / Uninstaller{web link} Shockwave Director Version 12.2.1.171 http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/ Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape: Adobe Reader Version 2015.009.20069 Note: McAfee Security is offered in the download.

Fred, everything worked except for the Reader. I still get the Initialization error when going to that link. The Flash player is updated though.

Remove that plugin manually.

Type about:plugins<enter> in the address bar. Now search for the plug-in.

Example; Adobe Acrobat File: nppdf32.dll,nppdf32.dll Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\browser\nppdf32.dll,C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\AIR\nppdf32.dll Version: 11.0.9.29 State: Enabled Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 11.0.9

This will show you the path to that program. Copy the Path Only. Also note the name of the file, and remember it. Now Close Firefox. Open your file browser and paste the path in the address bar. Find the file, and delete it. Now you can restart Firefox. Warning ! Remember to delete the right program.

To be safe, remove all of them. Then install the current.

Sorry I couldn't reply quicker. The install file will not initialize. I keep getting the same error.

Hi UnusuallyClueless, my understanding is that the "Application Initialization" error is an error in Adobe's installer program, which occurs AFTER you successfully download the installer and Firefox has saved it.

One possible cause of this problem is that the quick-downloading installer needs to connect back to Adobe for additional files, and some security software may block this. To work around that, try using the "full" installers (also called "offline installers"):

Flash

Go to https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html and in the first table, choose either the EXE or MSI, you don't need both, for "plugin-based browsers"

Adobe Reader

• If you already have Reader 11 or Reader DC installed, use the program's Help menu to Check for Updates -- this is more reliable than the Plugin Check website

• If you need a new installer: https://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/ -- after installing, you should still use Help > Check for Updates, because Adobe doesn't always package the latest patch into this download

Edit: To check whether your Adobe Reader is the latest available in its series, you can find your version's update history on this page: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/release-note/release-notes-acrobat-reader.html

I guess I'm good. I updated Adobe Acrobat Reader DC from within it's Help menu yet it still shows I'm outdated in Firefox. I'm not going to worry about it any more. I'll be at this for all eternity if I don't just drop it.

This is a known issue with the update checker. If the programs web site says you are up to date, then you are fine. Don’t worry.