Plug-ins can open vulnerabilities in even relatively secure browsers like Chrome. Even coders, like Jeff Atwood, can fall victim. Here's how to reign in plug-ins like Java, or disable them ...

Chrome doesn't rely much on plug-ins, but when you load up Chrome for the first time, it's already packed with five of them. How-To Geek explains what the heck they actually do.

If your aim is to manage how Google Chrome associates files, on the other hand, you can focus on disabling -- or installing and enabling -- associated Chrome extensions instead.

With Chrome 57, the next major Chrome release, Google will disable the plugin settings page chrome://plugins.