Entropy

Image from Wikipedia

Every time I upgrade my Firefox 3 beta all my plugins stop working, and I’m almost always certain that there is no real reason aside from the version shift - there are no relevant changes etc.

The most critical of these is my new favourite blogging tool, Zemanta. As I’m sure you’ve noticed there have been no posts for 2 days because of this

So here’s how to force plugins to work on new versions.

Step 1: Nightly Tester Tools

Nightly Tester Tools is a plugin for Firefox (that will install) which allows you to do a few nifty things, one of which is force plugins to be compatible. Go download it now!

Step 2: Restart Firefox

This is a step on its own because it can be tricky. After installing Nightly Tester tools I had to use the Tools->Addons menu and tell it to update it and restart again to get it working. But, worry not, it is possible to use this on beta5. Do whatever it takes people.

Step 3: Use the Tool

Once you’ve got your nightly tester tools installed (you can tell as your titlebar will include a Build number), its time to enable Zemanta (or your other plugin).

Go into Tools -> Add-ons and select the extensions menu. Right click on Zemanta and choose to “Make Compatible“. Now restart Firefox; when you come back you’ll notice your Zemanta is running once again!

Step 4: Other Apps (Optional)

Note that you can do this for any plugin - be careful though because there are changes between versions. I can tell you that Zemanta runs fine on beta5; but other plugins might not - although to be honest its very unlikely in my opinion when we’re almost RC.