NPAPI plugins are not supported on Microsoft's new browser Edge.
Google Chrome developed Chrome Native Messaging in order to interact with an executable installed on the computer provided its link on the registry (for Windows OS).
Firefox seems to want to support Chrome extensions in the future, and we can assume the browser will eventually support Chrome Native Messaging as well.
Internet Explorer will continue to support NPAPI until 2020 (from what I heard).
For Edge, no solution has yet been developed (or is there one?)
I'm willing to work with URL handlers (myapplication://mydata) in order to compensate for this lack. Is there a better approach so far?
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767914%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
My intent is to communicate through an HSM installed on the computer, and use the Crypto API interface, or a PKCS#11 driver in order to sign data and send back the result to the browser. With a chrome native messaging extension, it actually works well. With a URL Handler, I will be able to send data to the executable, but I won't get the result, so I will have to think to post the result to a web specific URL, but this can result in a security hole to my perspective.
Thanks in advance,
EDIT : 2017-01-14 : The following link shows the progress of the adaptation of the Microsoft Edge Extension API :
EDIT: as Beckyang posted recently, there is a link where you can vote for the feature to be developed in priority, here :
After reading some recent news:
It seems like the adaptation of the initial Chrome extension will be possible as soon as Microsoft has implemented a "Chrome-Extension-like" API. So, eventually, It won't be necessary to develop something completely new.