The Java Console extension is not the only add-on that Java adds to the Firefox web browser.
Users who open the Plugins tab of the Firefox Add-ons menu (by tapping on the Alt-key and selecting Tools > Add-ons, or by typing in about:addons in the browser’s address bar and switching to the plugins section there) may notice at least one Java Deployment Toolkit plugin there. There is no way to uninstall or remove the plugins directly from within Firefox.
Plugins are automatically picked up by Firefox as outlined in the How To Stop Automatic Plugin Installations In Firefox.
This means that the plugin will be added to the web browser if the installation puts it into a directory or location that Firefox scans during startup to find plugins.
Remove Java Deployment Toolkit
old Firefox interface
new Firefox interface
Removing the Java Deployment Toolkit
Lets begin with a description of what the Java Deployment Toolkit does:
The Java Deployment Toolkit takes the guess work out of determining what versions of the Java Platform end users have installed on their PCs. It supplies Java based web applet/application deployers with a simple JavaScript interface. This greatly increases the ease of detections of users’ Java environment, as well as the ease of Java Platform deployment.
A plugin that many Firefox users are not likely to need. Much of the confusion in regards to the Java plugin comes from the fact that users may confuse it with JavaScript. The two are completely different technologies with the latter being heavily used by many websites and integrated natively in Firefox, while Java is not integrated and not used by a lot of sites anymore.
We start the removal process by entering about:config in the Firefox address bar. Filter for the term plugin.expose_full_path and set it to true. This will display the full path of each plugin in the about:plugins window that we open afterwards. Double-click the entry to set it to true.
The instructions of the paragraph above are no longer required, as Firefox displays the full path automatically in newer versions.
Now open about:plugins by typing it in the browser’s address bar. The screen lists the filenames of all plugins that are installed in the Firefox web browser.
In the case of the JDK, it is npdeployJava1.dll that is linked to the Java Deployment Toolkit 6.0.200.2 and npdeploytk.dll that is linked to the Java Deployment Toolkit 6.0.190.4.
The Java Deployment Toolkit files are located in C:Program Files (x86)Mozilla FirefoxpluginsnpdeployJava1.dll and C:Program Files (x86)Javajre6binnew_pluginnpdeploytk.dll in the example above.
Users of 32-bit editions of Windows need to remove the (x86) part of the url so that they end up with C:Program FilesMozilla FirefoxpluginsnpdeployJava1.dll and C:Program FilesJavajre6binnew_pluginnpdeploytk.dll.
It is now time to close the Firefox web browser and open the plugin locations in Windows Explorer. The plugins can simply be deleted in their folders which will also remove them from running as plugins in the Firefox web browser. Cautious users might want to back up the files first before they remove or delete them from the directories.
Update: Oracle has added another way to unlink Java (7) from the browser right into the control panel applet of the application. I can only speak for Windows but you can use it to deactivate Java in all browsers so that it does not get picked up automatically anymore.
Let me show you how this is done:
- Tap on the Windows-key, enter Java and select the Java Control Panel applet result from the list. You can alternatively click on Start > Control Panel > Programs > Java if you use Windows 7 or older.
- Switch to the Security tab in the menu and uncheck the “Enable Java content in the browser” box there.
- Click on ok and wait for the program to complete the blocking of Java from web browsers that you run on your system.
This is by far the easiest option to unlink Java from Firefox and any other browser that you are running on your system. Note that you need to restart your browser for this to take effect.
Update 2: Mozilla plans to remove support for so-called NPAPI plugins in Firefox. Java and the JDK are plugins that use this interface. When the change is done, Firefox won’t pick up Java anymore in the web browser.
Now Read: Fix Java issues in Firefox