Hello all..

I've written an NPAPI plugin that is working in Firefox & Chrome on XP & Vista. In Windows 7 however, the browsers seem to fail to initialize it. I just can't seem to figure out why - and I'm not sure what to do next.

- The plugin appears normally in about:plugins in both browsers... before & after it fails to run.
- It doesn't crash. It just looks like it tries to start a few times and then the process dies silently.
- The failure is only on Win 7 (32 bit - haven't got a 64 bit to test yet) - It works for Chrome & FF on XP & Vista
- It seems to fail in the same manner for both Firefox & Chrome
- I enabled log for Chrome - but there are no errors -just the following INFO lines [edited for size]:

[INFO:chrome_plugin_lib.cc(200)] ChromePluginLib::CP_Initialize(C:\[PATH]\npClientInstMgr.dll): initialized=0
[INFO:plugin_lib.cc(95)] PluginLib::NP_Initialize(C:\[PATH]\npClientInstMgr.dll): initialized=0
[INFO:plugin_lib.cc(95)] PluginLib::NP_Initialize(C:\[PATH]\npClientInstMgr.dll): initialized=0
[INFO:CONSOLE(0)] "plugin_lib: FATAL: bad plugin.," source: http://cnewell-main/entry/pic_xie/plugintest.js (49)

The CONSOLE(0) is my output when the Javascript tries to call a method on the plugin and the DOM complains that 'Object #<an HTMLEmbedElement> has no method'

- I put a breakpoint on the first line in np_entry.cpp NP_Initialize()... debugger says it was loaded and then unloaded 4 times and my breakpoint wasn't hit.

added breakpoints to all the exported functions:
NP_Initialize
NP_GetEntryPoints
DllRegisterServer
DllUnregisterServer
DllGetClassObject
DllConUnloadNow
NP_Shutdown

I got the same repeated load/unload without ever hitting any of the breakpoints (using both FF & Chrome).


- Using the memory dialog in Chrome (shift-esc) shows the plugin load then disappear after ~10 seconds


I'd **really** appreciate any suggestions on what might be the cause or how I might figure it out.

I'm thinking that tomorrow I'll build a debug copy of FF or Chrome step through the browser's loading code - In fact this might be a good place to ask - I've done this for FF before - is building Chrome harder or easier the FF? Figured I'd try Chrome this time but I've already spent waaaaaay too much time on this so I should really minimize the time I spend going down this road.

Thanks in advance for *any* help.

Did you ever google around for hours then finally find just the right set of keywords that lands you on a forum where someone is asking about exactly the problem you are having - and then have your hopes dashed when you find that no one has responded? Happens to me all the time (and I'm not sure if that means I ask good questions or stupid questions). To help someone in a similar situation I return to post my resolution. If you find it useful then pay it forward by returning to your unanswered posts and populating so when I have the same question the solution is there waiting for me :-)

I used Dependency Walker (http://www.dependencywalker.com/) to see what was happening and found a 'SideBySide' error. A little more googling led me to try statically linking to ATL which fixed my issue. Spiffy little tool that Dependency Walker.

Thanks to anyone that took any time to consider my dilemma.

It's not that your question's stupid or anything, just that, I don't think there are many regulars here that are familiar with NPAPI. ^^;
Glad you figured it out, though.

Thanks for posting back to, I do that searching thing a lot as well. :S