Plugins

Lists every installed plugin, with the currently-loaded Plugin SDK version shown as a badge in the page header — click it to open the Developer Manual, which is what that version number is for.

The page is split into two panes: the installed plugins on the left, the selected one's details on the right. They scroll independently, so a long plugin list and a long settings form don't drag each other around.

If no plugins are installed, the page shows an empty-state message instead.

Plugin list

One row per installed plugin, showing its name with its version underneath. Selecting a row opens that plugin in the pane on the right.

The list leads with what there is to do: plugins with their own settings first, then plugins with components you can switch off, then the rest, alphabetical within each group.

Selected plugin

The pane opens on the plugin's icon, name, and overall function description.

Below that, a plugin that exposes its own configuration (custom settings beyond simple enable/disable) gets two tabs, Details and Configure. A plugin with nothing to configure has no tab strip at all — its details are the whole pane.

Details

The components this plugin registers, grouped by type (search providers, dynamic menu providers, etc.). Each toggleable component has its own enable/disable checkbox; a component marked as required shows a lock icon instead and can't be turned off. Hovering the (!) beside a component reveals its detailed function description.

When a group (or the plugin as a whole) has more than one toggleable component, a Select All / Deselect All link appears next to its header, letting you flip every checkbox in that scope at once instead of one at a time.

Configure

The plugin's own settings, edited right here rather than in a separate dialog. A plugin that sorts its settings into two or more groups gets its own row of tabs, one per group.

Nothing is written until you press OK. Leaving this tab — switching back to Details, or picking a different plugin — rolls the fields back to their saved values, so edits you walked away from can't be committed later by accident.

For a concrete example of what a plugin's configuration looks like in practice (e.g. changing a trigger keyword), see Instant Answers & Keyword Shortcuts.