Flashbuilder is unable to find FlashPlayer.exe

[smagfx2]

I just installed the release version of Flash Builder 4 after uninstalling Beta 2.

Besides some other problems, I am unable to launch any of my applications in Flash player.

When I try to run/debug/profile I get these error messages:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Flex Builder 3\Player\win\FlashPlayer.exe %1

Flash Builder cannot locate the required version of Adobe Flash Player. You might need to install the Flash Player or reinstall Flash Builder.

Do you want to try to run your application with the current version?

followed by (if I click 'Yes'):

Cannot run program "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Flex Builder 3\Player\win\FlashPlayer.exe %1": CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified

Pictures of the error messages and my preferences:

From the looks of it, Flash Builder is looking in an obviously wrong place for the player executable. I can't seem to find out if this is something that is controlled by my preferences/setup or internally by Flash Builder.

So, what do I have to do to change where Flash Builder looks for the debug Flash player?

Help would be greatly appreciated.

[smagfx2]

I've just looked through several files trying to see where the incorrect path is coming from, but no luck.

Any ideas?

[dansumption]

I get an almost identical problem. The first error message is the same, the second one reads: "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel."

This is on a brand new machine (bought this morning) with just Firefox and Tortoise SVN installed prior to installing Flash Builder 4.

I have tried manually downloading and installing the Debug Flash Players, but this makes no difference.

If Flash Builder screws up this easily on a brand new machine, I dread to think what it might do on an older system.

[Thurinus]

Hi there,

I had the same problem, and found a solution that may work for you... I'm assuming you're getting this problem when you're trying to debug your application using the stand-alone player (i.e. no html wrapper).

Find a SWF in windows explorer. Right click on it to bring up the context menu and choose 'open with...' > 'choose default program'.

From here, select the Flash Player you want all SWFs to open with. The default location of the player that FB4 *should* be using is at C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4\player\win\FlashPlayer.exe

Check the 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file' option, and hit OK.

You should now be able to debug from Flash Builder 4 properly.

Hope this helps!
Jay

[dansumption]

I did that, and it has helped - I can at now least run/debug applications. But I still get the same annoying initial "

Flash Builder cannot locate the required version of Adobe Flash  Player" error - I seem to have had this with every version of Flex Builder I've ever used, and it seems crazy that Adobe can't do anything about it. On a new build machine I would have expected this to work, but it seems not.

Also, you mention "trying to debug your application using the stand-alone player (i.e. no  html wrapper)" - I was wondering about this. Previously when I've used Flex Builder, the app did load inside a browser, so I was a bit confused that it's now trying to launch the stand-alone player. Any idea how I change this?

[Thurinus]

Oh, yeah... to use HTML wrapper, just right click on your project and select 'properties'. Select 'Actionscript Compiler' on the left column, and in the resulting properties pane on the right, check the option for 'Generate HTML Wrapper File'. That should force FB to launch the web browser for debug. This will require the ActiveX or Mozilla flash debug player, depending on which browser you're using for debugging.

[marina_gavrilov]

Bless you!!! I struggled with this a few days, and your solution is so unbelivably easy and IT WORKS!!!

Thanks a lot!!!

[moonkindc]

For people still looking fo ar solution.

I did a search in the registry and found two instances where Flex was referrenced rather that Flash builder changing this  to flash builder seemed to eliminate the problem.

Hope this helps

[blanchg]

The only way I could fix this was by copying the Flash64_11_3_300_257.ocx from C:WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash to C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

Found this out using procmon from sysinternals.