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How to Disable Java Now in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari

on (ttk.me b/4Mi1) using BBEdit

It's the end of another year and holiday season, and thus a good time to help make sure those you visit have Java disabled on their browsers in order to reduce the chances they'll get exploited. Originally posted in 2010, here are the instructions (with few changes) to turn off Java in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Disable Java in Chrome

Disable Java in Firefox

Disable Java in Opera

  • Go to opera:config#Java|Enabled (if clicking that link doesn't work, copy/paste it into a new tab)
  • Uncheck the Enabled [ ] checkbox if any
  • Click [ Save ]
  • Click ( OK ) to dismiss the dropdown sheet
  • Choose Quit Opera from the Opera menu
  • Relaunch Opera
  • Go to opera:plugins (if clicking that link doesn't work, copy/paste it into a new tab)
  • Click the blue Disable text button to the right of where it says "Java Applet Plug-in..."
  • Or simply uncheck [ ] Enable plug-ins at the top to disable Java, Flash, others in one click
  • Close the tab/window

Thanks for the update ‏@rchl2k!

Disable Java in Safari and WebKit nightlies

Bonus: Disable Java in Camino

Performance boost: disable Flash

Disabling Java will not only increase security (by avoiding all the above-mentioned Java vulnerabilities) but it will increase performance as well because your browser won't waste any network time downloading Java applets, nor will it waste any CPU time running them.

Disabling Flash, though it has fewer vulnerabilities than Java, will likely cause sites to load faster, since much more network/CPU is wasted by all the Flash ads that sites have these days. I disable Flash everywhere but Safari and run ClickToFlash (the 1.6b9 beta works fine) to selectively run Flash on video sites like Hulu and YouTube.

Additional Reading

More on the subject of Java (and Flash) vulnerabilities, additional sets of disabling instructions, etc.