Helper application

A helper application is an external viewer program launched to display content retrieved using a web browser. Some common examples include Windows Media Player and QuickTime Player for playing streaming content.

A web browser has a very long code, comprising of millions of lines and an application chosen to be a helper application has a code comparable to that of a web browser. So unlike a plugin(whose full code is included into browser code), a small line is added to the browser code to tell it to open a certain helper application in case it encounters a certain file format.

See also

• ActiveX control
• Object Linking and Embedding
• Overlay (operating system)
• Plugin
• shell script
• Video player (software)
• XCMD