I have developed a javascript plugin detector called PluginDetect. The PluginDetect script is intended to work with all the major browsers such as Internet Explorer 5.5+, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Chrome, Safari, Opera, SeaMonkey, Flock, and so on.
PluginDetect is currently at version 0.7.7 (by Eric Gerds, updated 04/11/2012). You are free to use this script for personal or commercial purposes as described in our user license.
If you wish to get a copy of this script then use the PluginDetect Generator.
There is also a full set of instructions on how to use PluginDetect.
The PluginDetect version history is also available to show what basic changes have been made.
For plugin detection examples and discussions, click on the links below...
By now everyone knows that Internet Explorer (IE) has presented some security concerns with it's ActiveX technology. Internet Explorer 7 and higher overcomes some of these problems by deactivating most ActiveX controls by default.
So, if IE 7+ encounters a javascript that instantiates an ActiveX control for the very first time, then the browser will give a popup warning message asking you to approve or disapprove the control. From a security standpoint, this is good - the user has more control over what happens and makes it less likely that some malware will run on his PC. From a plugin detection standpoint, however, things become more complicated.
Why? In order to do plugin detection in Internet Explorer, it is often neccessary to instantiate one or more ActiveX controls. For example, the usual javascript code :
new ActiveXObject('QuickTimeCheckObject.QuickTimeCheck.1')
has always been effective in revealing the version of QuickTime that was installed. But now, this ActiveX control will cause a security popup in IE 7+ the very first time it is run.
Fortunately, there are some ActiveX controls that have been pre-approved by Microsoft, and hence will not cause any security popups. There are others were previously run by the user in the browser window, and hence will also not cause a popup. PluginDetect makes every effort to only use controls that are least likely to cause a security popup.
Bug Reports
Send bug reports, comments or suggestions to
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Let me know if any of the above detection pages causes any problems for you, especially the Java and QuickTime detection. Make sure to report your browser, browser version, and operating system.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks go out to Lewis Francis for his extensive testing of PluginDetect on his Macintosh. I have also found browsershots.org to be useful for testing in certain browsers.