diff --git a/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/Core.groovy b/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/Core.groovy
index a079c4a8..386c317b 100644
--- a/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/Core.groovy
+++ b/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/Core.groovy
@@ -279,10 +279,13 @@ public class Core {
         log.info("initializing cache client")
         cacheClient = new CacheClient(eventBus,hostCache, connectionManager, i2pSession, props, 10000)
 
+        if (!props.plugin) {
         log.info("initializing update client")
-        updateClient = new UpdateClient(eventBus, i2pSession, myVersion, props, fileManager, me, spk)
-        eventBus.register(FileDownloadedEvent.class, updateClient)
-        eventBus.register(UIResultBatchEvent.class, updateClient)
+            updateClient = new UpdateClient(eventBus, i2pSession, myVersion, props, fileManager, me, spk)
+            eventBus.register(FileDownloadedEvent.class, updateClient)
+            eventBus.register(UIResultBatchEvent.class, updateClient)
+        } else
+            log.info("running as plugin, not initializing update client")
 
         log.info("initializing connector")
         I2PConnector i2pConnector = new I2PConnector(socketManager)
diff --git a/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/MuWireSettings.groovy b/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/MuWireSettings.groovy
index 71d1f7c6..b820ce1e 100644
--- a/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/MuWireSettings.groovy
+++ b/core/src/main/groovy/com/muwire/core/MuWireSettings.groovy
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ class MuWireSettings {
     int meshExpiration
     int speedSmoothSeconds
     boolean embeddedRouter
+    boolean plugin
     int inBw, outBw
     Set<String> watchedKeywords
     Set<String> watchedRegexes
@@ -76,6 +77,7 @@ class MuWireSettings {
         hostRejectInterval = Integer.valueOf(props.getProperty("hostRejectInterval", "1"))
         meshExpiration = Integer.valueOf(props.getProperty("meshExpiration","60"))
         embeddedRouter = Boolean.valueOf(props.getProperty("embeddedRouter","false"))
+        plugin = Boolean.valueOf(props.getProperty("plugin","false"))
         inBw = Integer.valueOf(props.getProperty("inBw","256"))
         outBw = Integer.valueOf(props.getProperty("outBw","128"))
         searchComments = Boolean.valueOf(props.getProperty("searchComments","true"))
@@ -130,6 +132,7 @@ class MuWireSettings {
         props.setProperty("hostRejectInterval", String.valueOf(hostRejectInterval))
         props.setProperty("meshExpiration", String.valueOf(meshExpiration))
         props.setProperty("embeddedRouter", String.valueOf(embeddedRouter))
+        props.setProperty("plugin", String.valueOf(plugin))
         props.setProperty("inBw", String.valueOf(inBw))
         props.setProperty("outBw", String.valueOf(outBw))
         props.setProperty("searchComments", String.valueOf(searchComments))
diff --git a/webui/src/main/java/com/muwire/webui/MuWireClient.java b/webui/src/main/java/com/muwire/webui/MuWireClient.java
index 1427f4d5..52f9c082 100644
--- a/webui/src/main/java/com/muwire/webui/MuWireClient.java
+++ b/webui/src/main/java/com/muwire/webui/MuWireClient.java
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ public class MuWireClient {
         settings.setNickname(nickname);
         settings.setDownloadLocation(downloadLocation);
         settings.setIncompleteLocation(incompleteLocation);
+        settings.setPlugin(true);
         
         PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(mwProps, "UTF-8");
         settings.write(pw);