How To Disable Java in your Mac Web Browser

Posted 10/29/2010 at 3:47pm | by Cory Bohon

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With the announcement of a potentially harmful virus floating about the internet this week, many Mac users have been weary of watching online videos via links to external sites, especially those on social networking websites like Facebook. However, this virus can be all but stopped by simply turning off Java code execution in your web browser of choice, according to SecureMac. That’s why we would like to show you how easy it can be to protect yourself from Java-based viruses originating from your web browser through applets.

Disabling Java Execution in Safari

Apple makes it extremely easy to turn off Java code execution in Safari. Simply head over to Safari > Preferences and click on the Security tab. From here, locate the checkbox labeled “Enable Java” under the Web Content section. Uncheck that box.  

Disabling Java Execution in Chrome

Google also makes disabling Java in Chrome relatively easy. To start, open Chrome and navigate to “about:plugins”. From this page listing all of your installed plugins, locate the plugin called “Java” with a description of “Java Plug-In 2 for NPAPI Browsers.” Underneath the plugin listing, click the Disable link to have the Java functionality in Chrome disabled.

When you do this, the settings will be saved and Java code execution from within Chrome will be disabled.

Disabling Java Execution in Firefox

Like Chrome, Firefox’s Java functionality is hidden in the plugins section. To disable Java in Firefox, navigate to Tools menu > Add-ons > Plugins tab. Once there, locate the plugin called Java Embedding Plugin. Click it, and then select the Disable button to have this functionality disabled. You may also have a plugin called Java Plug-In 2 for NPAPI Browsers; you can disable this plugin, too.

There you have it, a way to turn off Java applet execution in three of the most popular browsers on the Mac. This should keep away the currently rampant Mac virus, but if you believe your Mac has been infected by the Mac virus, you should visit SecureMac to download a free virus removal tool to check.

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