Enabling Java Plugins (NPAPI) in Chrome Version 42 and later

NPAPI support by Chrome

The Java plug-in for web browsers relies on the cross platform plugin architecture NPAPI, which has long been, and currently is, supported by all major web browsers. Google announced in September 2013 plans to remove NPAPI support from Chrome by "the end of 2014", thus effectively dropping support for Silverlight, Java, Facebook Video and other similar NPAPI based plugins. Recently, Google has revised their plans and now state that they plan to completely remove NPAPI by late 2015. As it is unclear if these dates will be further extended or not, we strongly recommend Java users consider alternatives to Chrome as soon as possible. Instead, we recommend Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari as longer-term options. As of April 2015, starting with Chrome Version 42, Google has added an additional step to configuring NPAPI based plugins like Java to run — see the section Enabling NPAPI in Chrome Version 42 and later below. 

Enabling NPAPI in Chrome Version 42 and later

As of Chrome Version 42, an additional configuration step is required to continue using NPAPI plugins.

1. In your URL bar, enter:
   chrome://flags/#enable-npapi
2. Click the Enable link for the Enable NPAPI configuration option.
3. Click the Relaunch button that now appears at the bottom of the configuration page.

Developers and System administrators looking for alternative ways to support users of Chrome should see this blog, in particular "Running Web Start applications outside of a browser" and "Additional Deployment Options" section.