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Participant
June 14, 2018
Answered

Flash Player 30 in PowerPoint

  • June 14, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 20472 views

I've recently updated to Flash Player 30 and suddenly am unable to use or embed swf content in PowerPoint (Office 365). I just get errors that 'Some controls on this presentation can't be activated. They might not be registered on this computer'. When attempting to embed new swf content using the Shockwave Flash Object I get an error 'System Error &H80004005'. Everything was working fine with Flash Player 29.

It looks to me like the ActiveX is being blocked in PowerPoint. Is there any way to enable it. My security settings within PowerPoint have not changed between version 29 working and now.

We have a large number of products which embed flash content within PowerPoint presentations and we would appreciate some guidance on how to fix this.

Thanks,

Tim

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Correct answer _maria_

There are security-related changes in Flash Player 30, setting Flash 'Click to Play' in Microsoft Office.  Per the Flash Player 30 Release Notes:

Flash Player "Click to Play" Microsoft Office Support

Starting with Flash Player 30, existing “click to play” functionality for Microsoft Office version 2007 and earlier now applies to all Microsoft Office versions where Flash is allowed to run.

Additionally, Microsoft has also blocked Flash Player (and Silverlight and Shockwave Player) in Office 365. Please refer to the following:

It's recommended to find alternate solutions to embedded SWF in PowerPoint (Office products in general).

1 reply

_maria_
Community Manager
_maria_Community ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
June 14, 2018

There are security-related changes in Flash Player 30, setting Flash 'Click to Play' in Microsoft Office.  Per the Flash Player 30 Release Notes:

Flash Player "Click to Play" Microsoft Office Support

Starting with Flash Player 30, existing “click to play” functionality for Microsoft Office version 2007 and earlier now applies to all Microsoft Office versions where Flash is allowed to run.

Additionally, Microsoft has also blocked Flash Player (and Silverlight and Shockwave Player) in Office 365. Please refer to the following:

It's recommended to find alternate solutions to embedded SWF in PowerPoint (Office products in general).

Participant
June 14, 2018

What exactly does this mean

Starting with Flash Player 30, existing “click to play” functionality for Microsoft Office version 2007 and earlier now applies to all Microsoft Office versions where Flash is allowed to run.

Does this mean its blocked now and you have to unblock using instructions below?

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/flash-silverlight-and-shockwave-controls-blocked-in-office-2016-55738f12-a01d-420e-a533-7cef1ff6aeb1?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

jeromiec83223024
Community Manager
Community Manager
June 18, 2018

Maria gave you complete instructions.

You'll need to follow Microsoft's directions to unblock Flash in Office 365.  The link is in Maria's post above.

At that point, Flash Player will run, but it will prompt you every time first (you have to click it before it will play, i.e. "click to play").  If you also want to disable our prompt, the directions are in our release notes.  Maria also posted that link above.

Also, we'd recommend simply not embedding Flash content into Office documents.  This might be a good reason to take the time to find a native solution to whatever you're doing that currently requires embedding Flash.