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Adobe Flash Player 10 Fix for Vista & XP
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An old problem has resurfaced this week, one which has really proven to irritate users the world over. In fact, the most popular article on the Blogberry is my Adobe Flash 9 fix from back in 2007, and it is still just as popular today.
Flash Player 10 - Will not install, will not work
This week saw the arrival of Adobe Flash Player 10, and yet again users worldwide are finding that YouTube videos aren’t working, or general flash content just refuses to load, with a message to the user saying that they need to be using the latest version of flash to view the content. The thing is they already have the latest version installed!
For me, I found in Internet Explorer I could play You Tube videos this time, but not use the BBC iPlayer to catch-up on missed TV. My first port of call was to try my fix from back in 2007. Sadly, no joy for Flash Player 10 as it works differently. “Yes!”, before anyone suggests, I did try uninstalling and reinstalling. Digging around on the Internet did not help either, instead I just found irate users like me. So I quickly realised that it was time to put the thinking hat on again and troubleshoot the problem for myself.
So here it is, my Flash Fix for 2008:
Step 1: Users need to download a special removal tool from here.
Step 2: Save the file to your Desktop or Downloads folder. DO NOT CHOOSE THE ‘Run’ or ‘Open’ OPTION.
Step 3: Close all running applications including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Instant Messaging Software (i.e. Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype, etc.). Look in the bottom-right of the system tray / taskbar to make sure the you have truly quit them and that they are not running silently in the background. This is because they tend to use the Flash Player too and the tool cannot remove files that are in use.
Step 4: Run the Removal tool from where you saved it. The tool will remove all versions (past and present) from your system.
Step 5: Restart your computer. Make sure you bookmark this page, or save a link to it in some form or another so you can get back here (links at the top of this page).
- Please note Steps 6 and 7 before you restart.
- Vista users: Please also note Step 7 before restarting. XP users should find restarting relatively straight forward, but Windows Vista users sometimes get caught out, so make sure you do it this way and not pop the machine into standby mode:
Press Start > The ‘>‘ arrow to the right of the padlock symbol > Choose ‘Restart’
- Vista users: Please also note Step 7 before restarting. XP users should find restarting relatively straight forward, but Windows Vista users sometimes get caught out, so make sure you do it this way and not pop the machine into standby mode:
How to restart in Windows Vista
Step 6: On restarting, ensure that any flash related programs have not started automatically. i.e. Instant Messaging Software (i.e. Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype, etc.)
Step 7 (Vista users only): Once restarted, open Internet Explorer in Administrator mode. Press Start > All Programs > right-click over Internet Explorer and choose ‘Run as Administrator’. This will ensure that the installation is done correctly and without security restrictions.
Step 8: Then go to the normal Adobe Flash Player Installation page and install (link will open in a new window or tab).
Step 9 (Vista users only): Then navigate your way to this folder: Computer > C: Drive > Windows > System32 > Macromed > Flash
Step 10 (Vista users only): Right-click over the file ‘Flash10a.ocx’ and chose ‘properties’.
Step 11 (Vista users only): In properties choose the ’security’ tab > Click on the ‘everyone’ account or your own Windows account profile, and the button called ‘edit’ and then tick the box called ‘allow full control’ and also choose your own Windows local account name to have full control.
Step 12 (Vista users only): Repeat this process for the file ‘FlashUtil10a’.
Step 13 (Both XP & Vista): Try this Flash video and see if it plays. If it does, you’re done!
Notes
- If you have files with different file names i.e. Flash10c.exe or FlashUtil10c.exe – the same practice still applies as shown above. It just means you have a more up-to-date version from when this was first posted.
- Don’t steal content from here i.e. copy and paste this onto your own site, forums or anywhere else. From experience, it’s not much fun hearing other people call your work their own, or implying it’s their own. Any written content or imagery on thetechangel.com is copyright, and permission to copy any content must be sort before posting elsewhere. You’re more than welcome to link back, social bookmark links, ping back or trackback to the post though. Links are at the top of the page to share it on various sites. Many thanks!
Update: 31.10.2008
So after much user feedback about this issue, it appeared that some Windows Vista users were still having trouble. In fact, where the test video (see above) was meant to appear, users were in fact able to right-click and see that Adobe Flash Player had loaded through it’s options and ‘About’ menu, but was not displaying any video.
After much rooting around, I discovered that some users had UAC (User Account Control) turned on and others didn’t. In Windows Vista, this feature is turned on by default. Compared to the Flash 9 fix in 2007, this did not apply to in that version.
In the case of this fix, it appears that UAC must be turned-off in order for flash to work. Annoyingly, it also appears (again!) that Adobe didn’t test properly its software before releasing the software.
Please make sure that you have followed the above steps exactly before proceeding with this next series of steps.
How to turn UAC off
- Click Start and open the Control Panel.
- Under User Account and Family settings click on the “Add or remove user account”.
- Click on either your own account (best option) or you can use the Guest account.
- Under the user account you chose click on the “Go to the main User Account page” link.
- Under “Make changes to your user account” and click on the “Change security settings” link.
- In the “Turn on User Account Control (UAC) to make your computer more secure” untick the “Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer”. Click on OK at the button.
- You will then be given the option to restart now or later – which ever you decide.
Notes
- Windows will (after you have restarted) make a fuss that UAC is turned off. You can choose to ignore these or stop them entirely if you want. Just click the info bubble that appears and choose the alerts options.
- To re-enable UAC just follow the steps above again and in Step 6 instead of un-ticking, just tick the box again and restart.
- What is UAC exactly?
- User Account Control (UAC) is a technology and security infrastructure introduced with Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. It aims to improve the security of Microsoft Windows by limiting application software to standard user privileges until an administrator authorizes an increase in privilege level. In this way, only applications that the user trusts receive higher privileges, and malware should be kept from receiving the privileges necessary to compromise the operating system. In other words, a user account may have administrator privileges assigned to it, but applications that the user runs do not also have those privileges unless they are approved beforehand or the user explicitly authorizes it to have higher privileges.
- More info can be found here (link opens in new window or tab).
Tags: Adobe, Firefox, Fix, Flash, HP, Internet, Internet Explorer, microsoft, Security, Sky, TV, Windows Vista
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October 23rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
[...] that Flash Player 10 is out, users may find this posting much more relivent: thetechangel.com/blogberry/2008/10/adobe-flash-player-10-fix-for-vista-xp/ Note added [...]
October 23rd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Hi There!
I was pretty excited when I saw this info. Unfortunately it didn’t work for me. I’m fairly certain that I did everything correctly. Any other ideas?? My child is driving me crazy because all the websites that she likes to play games at require this..and, alas, no go.
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
October 24th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Thanks for giving things a whirl aminnis and leaving feedback.
I have added Skype to the list of programs which should be shut before using the removal tool.
What version of WIndows are you using?
thetechangel
October 24th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Hey again. I am using Windows Vista Basic. I ended up switching over to Firefox and then somehow was able to get the Flash player to work from there, but alas, not in Internet Explorer. Pretty frustrating…I’m not the greatest with computer tech stuff, but gosh darn it I try. My daughter gave me a standing ovation when the flash was up and running on Firefox.
If you have any other ideas, let me know.
Thanks!
aminnis
October 25th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
aminnis, when you have run the removal tool in step 4, go to the Macromed folder:
Computer > C: Drive > Windows > System32 > Macromed
Make sure that the ‘Flash’ folder has been removed. If it hasn’t then it means some software is running that uses flash and the removal tool couldn’t do the job properly. Don’t manually delete it!
I know that FIrefox can work with Flash, but this problem only occurs in IE which is why we have problem here.
When you get to the Flash (re)installation page, does it tell you that it has installed successfully?
October 27th, 2008 at 2:01 am
Hello, I have completed all steps given above and I cannot see your video or any other. When I installed the flash player I did not see the “installation completion movie” that I have seen in the past during updates. I would like any help you can give me to fis this.
October 27th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Hey,
Currently I am using Windows Vista Home Premium edition, I tried all the steps based on your inputs to run the latest version Adobe Flash, but I am unable see the light. Can you please help me.
October 28th, 2008 at 11:43 am
i am having the same problem as aminnis
using vista .
The flash folder has been removed at step 4
but when the flash installation page it doesnt tell me it has been installed successfully but it is in the macromed folder.
any help?
thank you if you can.
October 31st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Post has now been updated with a further possible fix / cause of the issue.
Start from the beginning as some steps have been altered. Please also note that there is an updated, new, section at the end (added 31.10.2008).
Hopefully this will finally resolve the issues you guys are having.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:47 am
I’m using Vista 64 bit Ultimate. This is Adobe’s answer to the problem:
Incompatible Operating System and then it just sits there.
I’m downloading Firefox as I write this.
The 64 bit version of Vista has two Program Files folders.
One is marked (x86) and the other just says Program Files.
Either way, after all this mayhem you would think that these two giants in the software industry
would fix this nonsense and let people get on with their lives. (Adobe & Microsoft)
It seems that Adobe has gotten so big after taking over Macromedia that they just don’t care
about the customers.
I won’t be updating my software suite from them any longer.
They had the chance to fix this before they released version 10 but chose to ignore the problem.
The “Software Suites” that they sell run close to $2000 dollars.
For that kind of money, you would think that they would put a little more work into it.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:48 am
Hey kiosa,
Sorry that things haven’t worked for you over on 64-bit Vista. Sadly it would appear as follows from Adobe:
“Issue
Adobe Flash Player is not supported for playback in a 64-bit browser. However, you can run Flash Player in a 32-bit browser running on a 64-bit operating system.
Reason
Adobe is working on Flash Player support for 64-bit platforms as part of our ongoing commitment to the cross-platform compatibility of Flash Player. We expect to provide native support for 64-bit platforms in an upcoming release of Flash Player following Flash Player 10.”
That is from the horse’s mouth: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=6b3af6c9
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Really wanted to say a HUGE thankyou for your help in getting flash player to work with vista!!!!
I have been trying for about 3 weeks (and have had help from my IT friends) and have had no luck! I’m a teacher and wasn’t looking forward to returning to work with a computer that couldn’t play flash things!!
I tried your first instructions but they failed – the 31.10.08 update made it work!!
THANK YOU again!
November 15th, 2008 at 7:31 am
I also have Vista & found that after going thru all the recommended steps, I still couldn’t get flash player to work. Then I found a blog discussion about Microsoft Silverlight not working on Vista & IE7. Humm… Well I uninstalled Silverlight and Flash Player now installed perfectly!!!! Just thought I would pass this on also.
November 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Thanks andrews777 for that info.
Do you know if you were running Silverlight version 1 or 2? And what happens if you do choose to install a fresh copy of Silverlight?
I am interested, but cannot see how these two programs would be connected.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I had Silverlight 2. After reinstalling Silverlight 2, Flash Player continues to work.
Previous to this, I had tried several things, including purchasing a registry cleaner, which did not help either.
I’m not sure why it fixed the problem, but I’m so relieved!
November 16th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
You are my new hero!!! After three days of constantly adding, removing, updating, installing, uninstalling, pulling my hair out, crying and kicking my computer… you have solved my Flash 10 problems. Yayyyy!!!! I am going to name my next child after you and bronze your web page and build a statute in your honor in my front yard. Thank you Thank you Thank you for your patience and brilliance!
November 16th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Thanks Tammy for your comments.
Let me know when you plan to have the unveiling of the statue of me!!!
November 22nd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Thank you stranger!!
The Run as option and and shutting off Trend’s “Prevent unauthorized changes” setting worked.
I hope this helps anyone else
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:46 am
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I spend so much time on YouTube, and I was horrified to find that the videos would not play anymore. I knew Flash Player was somehow involved. You have my absolute gratitude! Now I may return to my life (aka YouTube) in peace.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:56 am
Wait no…. what?! The video you have linked at the end of the instructions works just fine, but YouTube still isn’t working for me! Did I do something wrong…?
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
A thousand thank-you’s. After recently buying a new computer I’ve found out first-hand what a little piece of hell Vista can be. Most of my favorite programs – audio, video, and photo – are now useless.
Thanks so much for the time and effort you put into this, and for sharing it with us.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
When I get to Steps 8 & 9
Step 8: Then go to the normal Adobe Flash Player Installation page and install (link will open in a new window or tab).
Step 9 (Vista users only): Then navigate your way to this folder: Computer > C: Drive > Windows > System32 > Macromed > Flash
JLEE: Step 8 the website still says I have the flash10a installes
JLEE: Step 9 I don’t find flas In that Folder I find it in Computer > C: Drive > Windows > SYSWOW64> Macromed > Flash and it was installed on 10/4 when I started having the problem.
How do I handle as I see no reference to syswow64 folders. Thank you jim
November 25th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I’m afraid this still doesn’t totally work for me. Followed all the steps and just about all Flash things seem to work – except.. a little weather report bar I was asked to put on a site –
http://www.chateau-de-clerac.com/GB/home2.htm (the test page)
Works fine in all other browsers, and also IE under XP. However, with Vista (Home Premium) & IE – nope…
Looks like Flash still needs some work…
November 27th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
fergster, your little flash weather reporter does not work for me in any browser which has Flash 10 installed on. This leads me to think that you have Flash 9 or older installed on your XP machine. The Flash file / scripts involved may well not work for Flash ten.
The software does however load correctly. I would suggest that you make sure you scripts are compatible.
November 27th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
jimbolee, please see this posting (http://thetechangel.com/blogberry/2008/11/adobe-flash-player-64-bit-get-in-the-know/) as you are using 64-bit.
And yes, it is repetitive to both post and email the same thing. Just post here is you want, that way other people can see regularly asked questions etc.
Cheerio.
November 28th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I have has a 64 bit machine work with flash fine before this one crashing at CNN, etc. so I am confused. Please consider this follow up question:
I do have a System32 folder that is right next to my sysWOW64 folder. How do I get the software to run and operate using the System32 folder (as is was set up in my last 64 bit machine?). Doesn’t microsoft and adobe get around the non compatible or unsupported 64 bit system by using the 32 bit “emulator” established by MS Vista and XP (sorry if this is the incorrect wording) as I am a novice user.
Example Iexplorer comes in two basic types [Iexplore and Iexplore (x86)]. Seems like my machine is pointing to the 64 bit code and I cannot find a way for flash to point/use/load to the 32 bit emulator and the iexplorer (x86).
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:29 am
I have Windows XP. When I follow the steps above and go to the Flash Video in step 13 I see the dog video (as it plays). But, if I go to Youtube or any other site requiring flash video it still doesn’t work!
Is it a matter of shared documents (more than one person uses the same computer)?
December 5th, 2008 at 12:45 am
I’ve followed your steps and flashplayer works for everything except full screen content on CBS News, cbsnews.com This is very strange! If they have a video embedded in one of their pages, full screen will work correctly. If you access any of the news videos and try to go to full screen, you get a message that says you need version flash player 9.0.115.0 or greater. I can play CBS shows in full screen but not anything for the news.
Do you think this is a problem with flash player, or CBS?
December 5th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Hi,
I am using Vista Ultimate. and Flash 10. I cannot get sound on anything which uses Flaspo Payer 10. Thius includes BBC iplayer [works under XP on another machine] YouTube, etc.
Thevideos are fine, but real quiet!
I player used to work until they changed to Flash 10
How can I fix it please.
December 7th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
You are a genius! I’d been tearing my hair out unable to download Adobe 10 on XP despite it saying that it was successfully installed until I stumbled upon your site. Thank you so much!
December 11th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
I’ve torn out all my hair and am sitting in front of the monitor in a state of insanity! For weeks I’ve been trying to tweek Flash Player 10 to get it to play an on-demand audio file. Aas, all it does is start up and then stalls to buffer every five or so seconds. I’ve done everything you suggested…multiple times…but nada. The same thing happens when I ran the test skateboarding dog. Am running XP on a dial up (ya I know that’s so old school…but I’m remote rural, and that is the only option other than sattelite right now.) that is pretty consistent at 49K. I hit the PAUSE button and allow it to get a head start and that seems to give me a longer PLAY time, but then the buffering starts up once again. I don’t use Messenger, SKYPE, etc. , and turned off a loading excellerator for web pages….so don’t know what the problem is. I’m really not very well versed in computers, so non-techie language would help….plus, I’m blond. Thanks soo much!!
December 13th, 2008 at 5:21 am
I tried the things meantioned here and still does not work. If I disable a add-on called Shockwave Flash Object I can use IE7 fine other then not having any flash available. Once I enable that add-on IE7 locks the second I go to check my yahoo mailbox. My OS is vista home premium 32-bit
December 13th, 2008 at 9:48 am
i have tried all the steps you have provided, and still can’t get flash to install, I keep getting a pop up that says “network error, please check your internet connection and try again… I am going nuts trying to get this installed, PLEASE HELP!!! TIA
-LisaAnn
December 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Easy way :I found the problem costed by useing internet exp..in my system
so
* I changed my Browser to FireFox the flash Player working %100
** so you can try same ,changing your Browser from IE to FireFox or FF to Ie just try!!
December 15th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Editor- I, too, have follwed each of the steps listed and am still unable to get Flash 10.0 to work (Vista Home Premium). I also followed your earlier advice about checking to ensure that the previous player was uninstalled after Step 4. I have also made sure that UAC is off as well. Any further guidance?
December 18th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Thanks a million. As far as my problem turning of the UAC (User Account Control), uninstalling took care of my Vista Flash problem.
December 26th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Thank you for the posting. I am still having some difficulty on one of my computers. I was specifically having trouble on Facebook. There are two function which utilize Flash 10. The first is taking a web cam picture for your profile, the second is utilizing the video creation software. I have successfully utilized your fix on my lab top which utilizing 32 bit Vista Home premium. Now both functions on Facebook work. I did not need to go the the later step of turning the UAC off.
However I am unsuccessful in getting this function to work on my 32 bit Vista Ultimate Software to work. Now I get flash installed and am able to see the flash video that you use to verify installation, but I cannot get the functionallity of Face book and utilizing my web cam to take pictures. The Web Cam works on other platforms-so I know it is not a web cam issue. I also went the next step to turn off the UAC-but it had no effect on this. I noted a prior post uninstalled Microsoft Silverlight-I did this also but no change. Any additional suggestions would greatly be appreciated. I hope you had nice holidays.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:41 am
The problem is — now the system is not using UAC. This is an issue in some circumstances. I personally would NOT turn off UAC.
An alternative is to run Internet Explorer as Administrator (right click, et al). This way, the system still has UAC turned on, but in the IE sandbox Admin will be operating.
This is still not the most perfect way, but the only way I’ve been able to get it done.
Any other ideas?
–Mark
http://www.marksatterfield.com
January 6th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Wellll. You are obviously a God, but the fix was not my problem. I post this in case some other poor shlep is in my boat and your proceedure doesn’t solve the problem.
I have Win XP Pro with a “Realtek AC97″ sound controler. In addition, the volume
control did not apear in my System Tray. This steps fixed both.
Fix 1: [Why doesn't Flash make Noise??????]
Start(button)/Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Audio(tab).
>>Under the “Sound Playback” section, make sure your primary sound device is selected in the drop down box, In my case it should have been “Realtek AC97 Audio”. In this instance, the stsyem was set up selected as “Modem #1 Line Playback” instead. Don’t know if the person who had the computer before me (wife?) did this or some other software install, but this did the trick.
Fix 2: [Uhhh, were did that little Speaker thingy go???]
Start(button)/Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices/Volume(tab).
>>Under the “Device Volume” section, check “Place Volume Icon in Task Bar”
Hope this helps someone.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Thank you for all the info – it all seemed to be going so much better following every single step of your excellent advice, but…..still no skateboarding dog!
The extraordinary thing is that, during all these past three weeks since my Flash stopped functioning, on my wife’s account it’s still working perfectly! She can have the dog till kingdom come, for all I care – I want it!
The OS is 32-bit, Vista Business. Do you think there’ll be any joy in SP2 Beta will whill soon be available – or is MS leaving to Adobe to sort out?
January 26th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Not so sure alikanas that Vista SP2 beta will help.
I am wondering if you have a program running in the background that is using Flash whilst running the uninstall tool. Before restarting the PC on step 5, make sure that there are no files in Computer > C: Drive > Windows > System32 > Macromed > Flash. If there are files in there, it means that something is running with Flash and the fix won’t work.
Also, if you have more than one user account on your PC, make sure only the account you working on is logged on.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Hi – We have had a flash segment in our home page w/no problems until recently when people using v/10 now can’t see it?
I’ve got no clues about this and have tried saving the swf in various versions and all the usually suspected things.
This transcends individuals since everyone using v9 can see it and those w/v10 can’t.
I need any and all expert advice, thanks for your help!
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:31 am
dparham, I have had a quick look at your site and would suggest that you look your Flash file. Your Flash file is incompatible across all browsers with Flash 10 installed, so it’s more than likely you will need to update your Flash software.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:35 am
hi, i am running adobe flash player 10 on xp sp3. I have used your fix. Adobe flash player 10 runs, but then it buffers and then plays a few seconds, the buffers and then plays a few seconds and over and over again. It never plays all at once, unless you wait till almost the end of the video, the play back arrow and then it will play until where it stopped in the beginning and then start buffering again and then play. Help!! This is driving me crazy.
February 10th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Worked well for me thank you windows vista premium.The only thing I did slightly diff.
was to use my registry cleaner.then reboot.works well now.After a month of headaches.
February 11th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
cap4luv, are you using a dial-up connection rather than broadband? Sounds to me like the video(s) you downloading at too much data for your connection to take in one go, for a smooth playout.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I used the fix you provided, thanks, but the only thing is, all I can view is your doggie test-video. I see that but when I go to Youtube it still tells me I need to download the flashplayer.
February 20th, 2009 at 2:33 am
I’m not the most tech-savvy person, but hopefully this will make sense anyways. I bought a new Dell computer last summer (the beginning of August I think). It is running Windows Vista and the Adobe Flash Player was working fine in both Firefox and IE……………that is until I installed Adobe Creative Suite 4 – Production Premium (which includes Adobe Flash CS4 Professional) about a month ago. Ever since then, I been trying everything to get it to work again in IE (of course Firefox isn’t a problem). I have gone through your procedure, which is very well written, several times, but to no avail. One thing I did notice was that when I tried to use the uninstaller for Adobe Flash, there is still a Flash folder in the SYSWOW64 folder which seems to be attached to Adobe Illustrator (another of the CS4 programs). I have shut down all the messenger programs (along with nearly every other one with the exception of the network connection and the volume adjuster) in my system tray, but it still won’t uninstall that Flash folder. I’m at a total loss now as to what to try next and any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance,
Teri
February 20th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
thal05 – is full controlled enabled for your user account name, as well as ‘everyone’?
February 22nd, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Tried your fix for FP 10 in VISTA Home premium. Mysteriously quit working 2 weeks ago. Very annoying. I’m a computer novice but after following your instructions everything works great.
Thanks,
gerhard
February 28th, 2009 at 2:13 am
Hello
Not sure if I’m doing this right, but, I’m at my wits end with Adobe Flash Player and Vista. I’ve tried all the little tricks and tips you suggested but, I think this may be different problem. AFP works fine on-line but the minute I try to play a swf file from email or the hard drive the browser opens (Firfox) and I get a message that I have an upgrade ready so I let it install and reboot, I attempt the file again to get the same results. if you say “Don’t install” the box disappears and we sit .. As I said I’ve uninstalled, re installed properly and made the permission changes and I still get the same results, Any ideas? If you could just point me in the right direction, it wold be a major help.
Thanks for your attention.
Boo
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
No idea Boo Rody why SWF files are give you trouble. Maybe try setting SWF file types to open in Internet Explorer rather than Firefox?
March 2nd, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Teri,
At a good (educated) guess you’re running Windows 64-bit. I sadly haven’t had a chance to look at a 64-bit flash issue before so I can’t tell you anything more than this posting (thetechangel.com/blogberry/2008/11/adobe-flash-player-64-bit-get-in-the-know/) already does.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
That video link up there worked, but YouTube videos still dont actually work. But we have different user account on this computer, and only my mums works. And me and my brothers doesn’t and were all administrators. And its been installed. Its so confusing (Im on XP btw)
March 6th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
zjennax93x – Run the fix across each account individually.
March 7th, 2009 at 7:00 am
Tried your fix on a box running XP Pro, followed all the steps and Flash Player 10 works now. After trying Adobe’s fixes in vain yours saved the day. BTW the box belongs to a friend whose wife needs to see live QVC so she can shop till she drops. He may not see it my way. Thanks
March 8th, 2009 at 6:21 am
OMG!!!!!!! PLEASE HELP ME!! I’m going crazy and becoming a zombie in front of my computer. I have Vista 64, and I think it sucks, I browse with firefox 3, and this is a new laptop. I’ve tried the instructions on getting flash to work but to no avail, when i go to install it it reads “cannot install google toolbar” which doesn’t even make any sense to me” and then i dont even think its installing b/c i go the folders and i don’t see the “macromed” folder in my Computer at all. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG??? and thx btw for this site, its refreshing to find people that want to help others
.
Simone
March 9th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Greetings from Germany in a worldwide problem for so many people. Using Windows Vista Home
Premium 32 and trying to install Flash Player 10 ActiveX, I almost drove crazy, because after
installing I had no connection to internet and some problems with incoming mails. For more than
one week without any progress and no help from Microsoft and Adobe, I remembered on of that
comments in your listing and uninstalled Silverlight and until now everything works perfectly,
hopefully furtheron. The only problem now is that the MSN toolbar does not work, because it
depends on Silverlight; but I can live with that problem until some day a real solution for the
Flash Player problem will be found.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Tried your fix on Vista 64 with exception of substituting SYSWOW64 for System32 and flash10b for flash10b. When clicked ‘Flash Video and see if it plays’, the video played. But when I went to my main email, IncrediMail, on Firefox, I again was asked to download Adobe Flash Player. In fact when I uninstalled flash player and rebooted, IncrediMail stated that they needed Flash Player and gave me Macromedia website which does not work.
Have read your blog on Flash Player and Vista. It seems I will have do without until the Adobe geniuses put out Flash Player 11. Any idea when that might be?
April 1st, 2009 at 6:59 am
Hello there…I’ve been researching this crappy topic for the past
couple months and finally came up with a solution for my situation…
hopefully it’ll work for you too!?
In Firefox I used an “add-on” to disable popups called “Adblock”
After uninstalling “Adblock” through…Tools…Add-ons…Extensions
Firefox had me restart the browser and Thank You Jesus! I was once
blind…but now I see!
I didn’t try to disable the extension cause I was tired of it’s attitude.
May 17th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Thanks a lot! It worked for me (Vista 32bit). I was having this problem for some time, until I really needed the Flash player and decided to do some Googling. Got me here. Good to have those techies around!
I have another problem, though: since some time I’ve lost the ’snooze’ option that was once there next to the ’sleep’ option, but now only the ’sleep’ option remains; this ’snooze’ option was actually a lot better cause less energy consuming. Someone got an idea how get this feature back?
June 18th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Thanks! From everyone in my house! Your fix worked great! So far so good but it has only been 2 hrs!
June 18th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Thank you so much
June 20th, 2009 at 4:11 am
hey, I have vista (32) and I followed all your steps but only some adobe flash videos work (i.e. youtube and your test video). I cant seem to figure it out why others like MSN trailers wont play.
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:09 am
I followed the instructions, and the video played for me that was linked on your site. However, I still am getting on all the other sites “Your Flash player is obsolete, etc etc etc” So it didn’t fix the problem for me. Websites still thinking my Flash 10 is Flash 1.0
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Make sure all Windows Updates are installed, either flagged as critical or important. They will be already ticked when you press ‘view available updates’. I wouldn’t suggest installing any additional drivers.
July 6th, 2009 at 11:21 am
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I have tried to fix flash player for MONTHS, and nothing has worked. I have Vista; and although it has some wonderful features, it has driven me crazy, too. I finally got to see the Belgium train station dance break on Youtube–and now I plan to look at all the things everyone has been telling my I’ve just GOT to see–thanks to YOU!
This website ROCKS!
July 6th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
[...] This may cure the problem click here [...]
July 11th, 2009 at 3:16 am
Big thanks from us for helping us with this!!!!!
July 19th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Thanks for the great info!! I repeated your instructions several times without success. Then I realised that FlashUtil9f was remaining in my directory – it will not go away -it was not showing up in “add remove programs” in the Control Panel, and when I tried to delete it from the directory, I got an error an was not allowed to delete. So, I renamed it, which, luckily it did allow. After that, Flash Player finally started working again! Thank you for posting this very helpful fix!
August 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 am
I really appreciate all of the effort that has gone in to the advice in this site. However after spending may frustrating hours trying all of the fixes I have now given up and gone back to using Firefox. And I now have Flash Player working!
August 7th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Hi, just found your website although I had finally downloaded Flash Player after weeks of trying. I know find that every time I go into another page (on Ebay for example) I get 2 or 3 pop-ups saying ‘do you want to allow software such as ActiveX controls and plug-ins to run?
It is very frustrating, can you help?
I am using Vista Home Premium 32 bit and Internet Explorer.
Regards, John
August 7th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Having problems getting AF Player 10 to download (Step 8). Stops at 11.4% with “Network error” under status. Ran most of the way a couple of times before, but the Adobe program said the data was flawed….Any other way to get the file?
August 11th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Probably best to lower your security settings in your browser. Tools > Options > Security > Reset all zones to default level.
August 11th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Urbane, clear your browsers cache before attempting to download again. Internet Options > Delete / clear tempory internet files (wording will vary according to browser)
August 14th, 2009 at 3:59 am
i give up….have tried everything, even firefox. My flash10 worked until about a week ago, and gradually just started getting worse with the pausing and skipping. I’ve tried this whole process about 3 times now…all my updates are current…the uac is off…nothing works. Any other suggestions??
August 14th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Hello, I have been having a similar problem to many other posts on here concerning Adobe Flash Player. For the past 2-3 weeks i have experienced, both IE6 & FF 3.5.2, crashing randomly when using sites that depend on Flash i.e Youtube, Tagged, FB & sites my kids use to play games. I have done several searches, read many forums & tried virtually every tip i have come across, from uninstalling/reinstalling (many times), turning off DEP, updating all drivers,trying IE8 and so on …until 3 days ago i decided to do fresh install of Xp Pro to SP3. As soon as i was back on the net i installed Flash 10c, but still i get the random crashes. I’ve even installed FP8, as i read somewhere that it was considered the most stable, but as soon as i go on any of the sites listed, it tells me to update to latest version of Flash (10c). I’ve just tried your method, to the word, but i am unable to view the video (I get Flash installed successfully video from adobe). Instead i get a browser open up with Conduit search. Just wanted to know if others are getting this also & if you have any more suggestions. Thanks
August 15th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
You state to give the Everyone group Full permissions when that is in fact very bad for security purposes. It is plenty to give just the users group, or even your own account the permissions.
August 18th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Hi – i don’t know if this is the same problem but here goes. I am running XP with SP3 and I responded to an unsolicited prompt to download the new vesion of Flash Player. I did and now it gets to the end – and stops saying download complete but will not register. There seems to be nothing I can do and – like most here – I have lost BBC iPlayer and everything elsr that runs on Flash.
Any advice would be most welcome. I got the same prompt on my laptop yesterday and – of course – declined it.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Mike B, have a look at this: http://thetechangel.com/blogberry/2009/08/flash-10c-fix/
It’s hot off the press!
August 18th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
It’s not the best position to be in Chiller, but it’s not dire, providing users are sensible and have all Windows Updates installed and a good antivirus this shouldn’t be deemed as a huge problem.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Dazza, have a look at this: http://thetechangel.com/blogberry/2009/08/flash-10c-fix/
It may help, but it’s not your exact issue.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Kim, you too should have a look at this: http://thetechangel.com/blogberry/2009/08/flash-10c-fix/
August 19th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Sadly this did not work.
The folder Flash contained only one file named “install log”.
Also when the adobe site asked permission to download an active x control it came up “failed to install”
Any further advice would be very much appreciated – but I would have thoiught a company the size of Adobe would have been able to overcome this.
Thanks
August 20th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Maybe Mike try installing Flash 9 from here (http://thetechangel.com/blogberry/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/install_flash_player.exe) and work your way upwards.
Just a thought, but outside of that I am a bit stumped as to why your Flash folder does not even contain some more files. Might be worth you posting the contents of the install log file.
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:49 am
I tried…and failed. My problem is not that it won’t install. It does, but every single video just plays for like a second…pauses…restarts for a second, and so on. It takes twice as long to get through the video, if you can stand it for that long. Can I just go back to version 9 and use that until they come out with something that works?? I do appreciate your suggestions…I put in a ticket with adope support about 2 weeks ago, and have heard NOTHING!!
August 24th, 2009 at 12:15 am
I didn’t need to do all of this but after one frustrating week and a current 3 hours of solid trying everything under the sun – the ruinning IE as an admin in Vista seemed to be the one that worked.
The link to the video didn’t but I went o a site that needed flash and it installed correctly then.
HURRAY and thank goodness for this site. Whew I was getting so irritated!
Seriously WHY do Adobe make it so damn difficult?
August 29th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
ive tried all the steps but still not working keeps getting to 100% but then says error: failed to install any ideas?
September 6th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Here’s what I did and it was a solid fix, after spending at least 5 hours working on it over a few days.
I have a Dell Latitude 630 running Vista Home Basic, and also Norton 360.
Start in safe mode and delete Flash Player 10.
You may have to start it up and shut it down a couple of times to make sure it’s gone.
Don’t use Microsoft IE.
Use Mozilla Firefox.
Do not download Flashplayer to your pc and then install it.
As soon as Mozilla hits a site that requires Flash Player 10 (that won’t take long) install FP10 from within the browser.
Never install it to the PC and never install it to MS IE.
For good measure run a full system scan with Norton, or whatever similar software you have.
I would be interested to hear if this worked for anyone else.
My situation was far worse than mere crashes. My whole system was compromised by an inability to load programs and an inability to shut down by itself.
September 12th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Hey, i’ve been having this problem for a while, i have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, yet on some of the web sites, videos just dont show up at all, instead when i move my cursor over the video, it shows up an option called *About Adobe Flash Player 10…* then it redirects me to install page of AFP, although i have the latest version, i’ve also tried everything u wrote here, but none worked…
September 14th, 2009 at 12:30 am
After two days of troubleshooting, I finally loaded firefox and loaded flash ver 10. I then went to explorer 8 and flash ver 10 loaded fine. I’m running 1p
September 24th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I have followed instructions to the point until I get to the UAC turn off… my own computer then revolts against me and won’t let me turn off the User Account Control…I do not have the “Account and Family settings” instead I have “User Accounts”. I had flash player for about 1 hour yesterday, why I have not a clue but it then disappeared…It works fine on Mozilla… and on IWin which I believe is Internet Explorer based? Would appreciate pointers…Thanks PS I am a novice be explicit!!!{Chuckles!}
September 28th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
o meu computador nao quer instalar o adobe flash
September 29th, 2009 at 3:18 am
I use XP and IE8. I followed everything from the instructions but when I try to watch the video on step 13 nothing happens, it only opens a conduit search page… please help me !!! I will get crazy with this bug… I just launch a web page and it crashes…
September 29th, 2009 at 8:23 am
In English please geyza – thank you.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
dado the video link to test the Flash Player has now been updated.
October 8th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I had the same tried all the above. I eventually sorted it in ie 8 by going to tools > Manage Add-ons > add on types toolbars and extensions and enabling shockwave flash object. It had been disabled because ie 8 would hang sometimes on opening because it was unable to load add on. Never has that problem in ie 7 that’s progress for ya.
October 10th, 2009 at 1:07 am
I installed Flash Player 10 without problem by using the Adobe Web installer Tool for Firefox. But the CPU stays on 100% as before. I am unhappy, that I can not configure anything in the properties of the flash animations like CPU priority, RAM usage or framefrate…
October 10th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
in my windows vista home basic ; i followed all your instructions and adobe flash player started working in internet explorer but not in mozilla
but the next day when i again started my laptop the problem came back
any solutions what to do???
October 12th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
The memory hogging of Flash Timo seems to be an increasing problem. Contact Adobe and they might be able to make some suggestions.
October 25th, 2009 at 1:34 am
I tried what you said and now when my computer turns on well it doesn’t turn on so now what am I supposed to do? I have windows XP I saved that remove file closed everything then ran it and now when I turn on my computer I get a blue page that says my computer is not running because something harmful will happen if it does, so I have to push F8 and start it in safemode to do anything. How can I fix whatever happened and my flash player problem is still there. When I am looking at the Adobe flash player site to download what you posted it will not run at all. I get a page that says the page has closed because of malicious or malfunctioning add on. If I turn off the Flash player under maage add on that run without permission I dont have the page closing problem but then I can’t look at half the things I want to. PLEASE HELP ME.
Thanks
October 27th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Camnbry, run a full antivirus (up-to-date one at that) scan and it may also be worth running a secondary scan using Microsoft’s malicous removal tool.
It sounds like (based on what you have said) that there is something else at work on your PC. You can do both of the suggested tips in safe mode.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:10 am
I spent three days on all these techy solutions for video not working and got nowhere. Then I thought, 69% of internet traffic is porn. So I put “porn” in google and clicked on a porn site. There was a ten second war between the site and my computer (flashing dialogue boxes) and then the porn video started playing. I stopped it and went to youtube and everything plays. Guess the porn billionaiarres can employ the best programmers. Nice of them to fix my problem, whatever it was.
November 9th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I can’t say your workaround would be all that advisable for users Rob. But if it worked for you then it works which is great!
November 14th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
i didn’t realize how bad the playback really was until after i tried your fix. i can’t say for sure that it has completely stopped dropping frames or jerking a little but it’s so much better i can’t believe it. when i move my mouse or use the touchpad during playback it will still freeze or jerk just a second but overall i can at least watch it now. just wanted to say thanks.
November 18th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
thank you
November 30th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
HI There I am using windows cristal XP , I am unable to see videos on youtube and i am getting a message like either java script is turned off or not using latest version of adobe flash , but many times i have installed Adobeflash but my computer is becoming very very slow it happend many times. so how can i resolve the problem?
December 4th, 2009 at 3:30 am
I removed the Ad block in the Tools/add-ons and now it works. Can’t believe how long it took to solve this. Thanks for all the advice.
December 9th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Since I ran the “special removal tool” I get a message saying “unable to load a GUI” when I try to download Flash Player. Can you please help? I run Vista Home Basic
December 15th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Brilliant. I was at the end of my tether with my Flash problem. This worked a treat on Vista (without the update about UACs).
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
December 26th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Thanks a lot for this! It’s working for me now that I’ve turned AUCs off.
December 28th, 2009 at 3:42 am
There is process in the starup with no name,
go to run, type msconfig and enter, click startup and you will see some program with no name, just uncheck it and click ok.
now my flash player doenot eat memory/ram
December 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Thank you for your information. Worked like a charm.
January 9th, 2010 at 6:44 am
My system was working good until yesterday it works good on the administratos account but on the guest or limited accounts wont work i’m using xp black sp3 i already tried everything is on this page but nothing seems to work i would really need help my little boy cant play any games or watch any videos, thanks guys.
January 25th, 2010 at 8:54 am
My flashplayer still echos on the sound. I tried everything. Please help! I do online classes and all I get is echoy sounds when I do the teachers videos. How can I fix this?
January 25th, 2010 at 10:26 am
Tabitha, same poccess as usual (already said several times in the comments), run windows updates and make sure that you have the latest / all available updates.
Also try running a disk check.
I won’t post both of your comments, as you repeat yourself.
February 6th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
I’ve tried this fix and still cannot get Flash to work in either Firefox or Internet Explorer. I’m running Vista 32-bit. I’m going to download Flash 9 again and pray that works.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
And this is why iPhone OS doesn’t play flash. Similar reasons for most smartphone OS’es.
Anyway, just to report my experience, it’s way more random than all this. A friend of mine had the same issue I had when I got to this website: http://getsatisfaction.com/adobe/topics/when_using_adobe_flash_player_10_why_is_there_high_cpu_memory_usage_100_utilization?utm_content=topic_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=reply_notification
And then his issue was suddenly solved. He doesn’t know how, nor he cares. I had it on my OSX86, Ubuntu and Windows, and in more than one computer. Also it disappeared out of the blue in all of them, but not at the same time. I don’t recall doing updates for it to be fixed, but maybe it was something like that.
Or maybe I just entered some website, like the porn guy there, that fixed it.
And I think it’s very nice of you, tech angel, to answer every comment here for one year! oO
Don’t bother with mine, I’m just reporting, and linking.
February 10th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I tried everything recommended by Adobe and spent hours this morning to NO avail. I followed your steps, and in less than 20 minutes… it works!
February 21st, 2010 at 9:56 am
thanks it works and I was able to see the dog riding the skate board. Cheers
March 9th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
I tried it all.
I can see you video stopped, but as soon as I start it, it is like it over-drives the colour.
I get purple-ish huge splotches all over the screen.
I can sometimes make out the background, sometimes not.
I followed the steps, made sure all was emptied.
XP Pro, SP3, IE6, AMD.
I have found AMD can make a difference in some areas of programs.
I found several sources to download without the google browser, as the google invasion will not happen on my computer.
What causes the purple overload?
March 10th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Thank you so so much, the problem solved after three hard days of fooling around. It works!
March 12th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
I cannot open any youtube videos, it says error has occured on all of them!!!
Please help me to get my videos back.
Evelyne
March 12th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
No idea Toc “what causes the purple overload”! But it does sound as though your machine is not in a good way.