Firefox "Blocked: May Contain a Virus or Spyware" Quick Solution

Firefox download manager keeps blocking downloads that you know are safe, claiming that they might contain a virus or spyware.

There are two quick solutions.

The easiest is simply to...

1. Download the file in a different browser like Chromium or Chrome.
This is the best option if it's just the one file that's causing you problems but if it keeps happening over and over then this really isn't practical.

Also consider the future implications. It only tells you it's blocked the file after its been downloaded. Imagine you're five hours and 99% into downloading a vital 2GB file over a sluggish connection then suddenly that error pops up - you're gunna be mad.


2. Disable safebrowsing.
While this will get rid of the annoying warnings, it will also disable warnings when you're visiting dodgy sites, such as forgeries or phishing sites so it's not a decision to be taken too lightly.

On balance, for a Linux user with a bit of sense, I think it's not at all risky. However, if you're still worried consider downloading a good range of protective add ons such as Bitdefender.

Here's how to disable safebrowsing: 

1. Type "about:config" in the address bar.
2. Click ok to all the Here Be Dragons warnings.
3. Search for and set the following two values to false:

   browser.safebrowsing.enabled

   browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled

   4. Restart Firefox and download the file.

Flash Won't Work in Firefox - "Flash Player 11.3.300 Required"

So I was messing about on Betfair, hoping to net a tidy profit on some of the World Cup matches (not likely!) when I noticed they'd given me some free spins on their Live Casino service. Not likely to pass up the chance to win some risk-free money, I promptly headed on over there only to find my version of Flash was not up to their high expectations.

After doing a bit of forum browsing, I'd read that Adobe had stop putting out usable updates for Firefox in uBuntu a while back. Thankfully there is a solution. I suspect there is a better way but what is most certainly the quickest and easiest way is to download and install Google Chrome (Note: not Chromium that is installed via the Software centre).

This shouldn't take more than five or ten minutes and when running, Chrome comes with the latest version of Flash installed so every Flash application should run smoothly.