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 ^[1], 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 ^[2].

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’

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 ^[3] (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 ^[4]. 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 ^[1], 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

1. Click Start and open the Control Panel.
2. Under User Account and Family settings click on the “Add or remove user account”.
3. Click on either your own account (best option) or you can use the Guest account.
4. Under the user account you chose click on the “Go to the main User Account page” link.
5. Under “Make changes to your user account” and click on the “Change security settings” link.
6. 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.
7. 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 ^[5] (link opens in new window or tab).