Applications and download actions list is empty

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Revision as of 05:16, 21 February 2007 by Alice Wyman (talk | contribs)
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The Firefox Download Actions list will be empty if you haven't set any download actions and if there are no plugins installed that are set to handle MIME types that are associated with file extensions.

You can set a download action by checkmarking the box "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" in the Firefox "Opening" dialog that appears when you first encounter a download for a particular MIME type. Test pages that include direct links to media files are given here.

The Download Actions list should not be empty if plugins are set to handle certain file types; for example, if the Flash plugin is installed, there should be an entry in the Download Actions window for .SWF files and, if the Adobe Reader plugin is installed, there should be an entry for .PDF files. You can enter about:plugins in the address bar to see what plugins are detected in Firefox.

One possible cause of an empty Download Actions list on Windows systems is the presence of the npbittorrent.dll file in the Firefox plugins folder [1] [2]. If you see the BitTorrent plugin in your about:plugins list, then exit Firefox, open the Firefox installation directory\plugins folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins in a typical Windows install) and either remove the file "npbittorrent.dll" or rename it Xnpbittorrent.dll.

Another possibility is a corrupt mimeTypes.rdf file [3]. Exit Firefox completely and delete or rename the "mimeTypes.rdf" file in the Firefox profile folder and the file will be regenerated (read this for help finding it). This will remove any previously defined download actions. Note that, in some cases, you may need to follow these instructions to completely reset your Firefox Download Actions and any related preference settings that may exist.