Mac installation says Safari is open, but it is not.

Wow, so much knowledge flowing in this thread   I appreciate all the information.  Thank you!

I thought I'd share my experience with "safari is open"...I tried the activity log in utilities, and forced quit anything that said safari on it (because I don't use safari)...still got the same message "safari is open".  I quit any and all applications I had opened, except for Skype, and still got the same message, so...I quit Skype...and there it was..."successful download"   I'm not too tech savy, but I was just happy to have it successfully download.  I'm sharing my amateur experience only because it worked for me.

i tried most of the above but still had acrobat reader open

i simply closed that and it went past 28% and completed, even though safari was closed and had no plug ins running...

bizzarre

1. Click apple icon in top left corner of screen.

2. Select Force Quit

3. Close Safari

I have found a solution, when it says you need to close safari, all you do is press and hold the safari icon at the bottom and then press quit, this gets rid of anything to do with safari thats open and lets you install it.

Solution to be able to continue installing Flash Player (Safari seems not to be closed, but actually is):

-  Go to menu to force programs by clicking:     "Command + Option + Escape" - buttons

-  Go to 'Finder' > 'mark' it > and click:                "Force Stop"-button      * [right-under]

-  "Finder' will restart and you wil be able to continue with the installing

Good Luck!

* since I have a Dutch version of OSX 10.10.1 I am not sure of the name of the button, but just click on in..

I don't mean to chuckle , So I'm at my mothers and she hands me her new mac book (note Ive never messed with mac) i always had windows . She says look Im heading out to work can you "get this frigging adobe flash shit to play my videos I have to leave for work" I look in mystery like "your asking the wrong person for that. SO i take to google , run a search and first thing pops up while typing in "installing adobe flash player says safari is open but its not" so Im reading and reading and reading.......................and reading and nothing . I mean everything that everyone was saying was happening now mind you my installer was at 97% because soon as it said retry I'de just smash that retry,retry,retry and I got to 97% so as I am reading I see someone say I tried ctrl+q so I close out safari and hold control and tap that Q and Bam safari pops up and says successful download , now just to make sure Im like "that did it?" i open youtube.com type in my peeps PVP thats "prankvsprank" to see if they have any new videos and wahla flash player works perfect.  "I don't care who you are that was funny" thanks everyone even y'all from start all the way from April 2013. hahaha

Dear all,

I have found a fix in relation to the above issue.

After exiting Safari, click on Safari from the main task bar and select "Quite Safari".

This worked for me, hope it helps you too.

AShamolli

Found in an Apple forum that pressing the Command key (the one with the pretzel logo) + Q closes the safari program; tested it and was able to install Adobe in my Mac. Hope it works for other users.

I was having the same problem on my MacBook, tried several times and finally it worked after I held my mouse down over Safari so options would pop up (show all windows, new window, options, hide and quit. I clicked quit and the download completed. Hope this can help anyone.

why does everyone complicate everything?  just right click on safari and click quit