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Chrome 42 breaks the vSphere Web Client Integration Plugin

 Update provided below!

 

Client Plugin NPAPI

 

Google has been threatening to remove NPAPI (Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface) support for some time now and they’ve tested the waters with version 42 by disabling it. Since the VMware Client Integration Plugin requires NPAPI, administrators now have to enter their credentials manually. Terrible, I know!

Missing Plugin

Apart from having to enter your credentials by hand, you’ll also lose the ability to transfer files from your desktop to a datastore via the browser or deploy OVF templates. You can still console VM’s via your browser and with the VMware Remote Console.

If you’ve updated Chrome, it’s too late as Google does not support rolling back. IE will continue to function however.

I have contacted VMware regarding this issue and will provide immediate updates.

 

UPDATE: Google has provided an override to enable NPAPI support. Simply enter the following in your browser:

chrome://flags/#enable-npapi

Then click Enable.

enableNPAPI

Matt Bradford

30 Comments

  1. Legend. I’ve been trawling all morning on the Interwebs for an answer and your post fixed it for me.
    Cheers
    Pete

  2. This was a great find! I noticed the same thing the other day. No matter how many times I reinstalled the plugin, it would never work. I noticed that Chrome had updated to v42.x which had to break the plugin for the web client. Couldn’t find any topics on it until I decided to search again today. Thank you very much for sharing this. Also a community thread about it now at:
    https://communities.vmware.com/thread/508620

  3. Thanks for posting this. Ran into this same issue this morning and this post saved me a ton of time. Thanks again and have a great day.

  4. Thanks for the tip Matt – it works (after restarting the browser of course!) – It’s funny, but IE11 running VSphere broke around the same time as Chrome… was it a recent IE11 patch? We thought since both IE11 and Chrome 41-42 weren’t working, it was maybe a Vsphere issue…

  5. Great fix. Thank you! I tried a bunch of other things before seeing this fix and this is the only one that worked.

  6. @ Matt
    Many thanks

    @GEORGE
    The fix for IE 11 is:
    F12 Dev Tools | Set Document Mode to “10”
    (page will refresh – no restart needed)

    • Hi Craig,
      Chances are good that we’ll have to start using another browser until VMware releases their non NPAPI plugins. The other option is to upgrade our vCenter servers to 6.0.

      • I’m on 6.0, it too is broken, and now the plugin appears to be shot down in IE and FF too.

        My answer to this stupidity is to not renew our VMware contracts. It’s a competitive world and there’s no reason for their incompetence to be acceptable.

        • Yeah i’m having the same problem – Stopped working in IE and FF aswell :/

  7. Hi

    I’ve used this fix earlier – but after Chrome updated, no NPAPI is available. It’s now version 45.0.2454.85. Forced to use the vSphere 5.5 client – damn.

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