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pafaye
Participant
January 30, 2014
Answered

Flash and Shockwave Players Problem?

  • January 30, 2014
  • 1 reply
  • 588 views

Had installed Flash and Shockwave without incident. All of a sudden I began to see messages stating that I needed either or to view a particular site. Checked "All Programs" and neither site were on the list. However, programs do show in Control Panel under files to delete. Adobe's page where one can check if a program is installed shows both programs installed. Attempts at restalling appear successful, but programs still do not show in "All Programs" and still receive messages that programs need be installed. In Control Panel I see Adobe Flash Player11 Pliug In and Adobe Flash Player 12 Active X along with Adobe Shockwave Player 12.0. Not a strong computer user. What am I missing? Using Windows 7, IE 11.

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Correct answer C_F_McBlob

Flash Player is a "plug-in", NOT an app, so you'll NEVER find it in the program files, or in the start menu.  The physical files arelocated in C/Windows/System32/Macromed/Flash and C/Windows/SysWOW64/Macromed/Flash.

But...

IE11 is a "Rolling Train Wreck". Combined with 8.1 it is, without a doubt, the worst pile of garbage to EVER come out of Redmond, WA. Even with WIndows 7, it's a mess, but not ALL THE TIME like it is with 8 or 8.1

MS deliberately altered the "User-Agent Strings" to make it nearly IMPOSSIBLE for pages and sites to ID it. (See: IE11's Screwed up User-Agent Strings)

The pages can't recognize the browser, so they don't recognize any of the plugins, like Flash Player. So far, Microsoft has made NO indication that they have any plan to fix it soon.

Microsoft's recommendation is to use Compatibility View for affected pages, and "pretend" you're using an different browser. Trouble with that is it has seen limited success at best, and you have to individually enable it for EVERY page that has problems.

I'm not big on "pretending" so I recommend actually using another browser.

Firefox (from Mozilla)

Opera (from Opera)

Safari (from Apple)

Chrome (from Google)

ANY of those will work where IE11 won't, with the Flash Player Plug-in (For all other browsers), and Chrome doesn't even need that because it has its own Flash Player plugin built in.

1 reply

C_F_McBlob
C_F_McBlobCorrect answer
Inspiring
January 30, 2014

Flash Player is a "plug-in", NOT an app, so you'll NEVER find it in the program files, or in the start menu.  The physical files arelocated in C/Windows/System32/Macromed/Flash and C/Windows/SysWOW64/Macromed/Flash.

But...

IE11 is a "Rolling Train Wreck". Combined with 8.1 it is, without a doubt, the worst pile of garbage to EVER come out of Redmond, WA. Even with WIndows 7, it's a mess, but not ALL THE TIME like it is with 8 or 8.1

MS deliberately altered the "User-Agent Strings" to make it nearly IMPOSSIBLE for pages and sites to ID it. (See: IE11's Screwed up User-Agent Strings)

The pages can't recognize the browser, so they don't recognize any of the plugins, like Flash Player. So far, Microsoft has made NO indication that they have any plan to fix it soon.

Microsoft's recommendation is to use Compatibility View for affected pages, and "pretend" you're using an different browser. Trouble with that is it has seen limited success at best, and you have to individually enable it for EVERY page that has problems.

I'm not big on "pretending" so I recommend actually using another browser.

Firefox (from Mozilla)

Opera (from Opera)

Safari (from Apple)

Chrome (from Google)

ANY of those will work where IE11 won't, with the Flash Player Plug-in (For all other browsers), and Chrome doesn't even need that because it has its own Flash Player plugin built in.

P
pafayeAuthor
Participant
January 30, 2014

Hi Mike

May not know what "User Agent Strings" are, but understand your recommendation - Use a different browser. lol. Have Chrome on computer and use it for a few sites. Suppose I'll have to learn it much better. You use what  you get use to. Oh well. Hard to believe that MS would release an IE version that would create conflicts with Adobe, but you obviously "Know your stuff." First time using this site. If I'm to rate your answer, hope the Correct Helpful link above is the only way to do it.

Take care and ty.

Paul

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