Macromedia Flash Player Windows 7
Mina Spartin
Well guys, i entered the strange world of the good well old OS Windows for Workgroups 3.11. I got the Internet Explorer 5 ready, as well as an local http server and even a tcp/ip stack that only runs on a non-existent network card (i just wanted to play local games). so my next idea was to install adobe flash player (oh excuse me, macromedia flash player) 3. i tried to start the swf-file in an htm file on the internet explorer 5.0 but the game seems to require adobe flash 9.
is there any way to provide the ocx-file for adobe flash 9 to win 3.11, is there anyone with knowledge about the compatibilities out there? i also tried opera 3 and netscape navigator 4.07, but netscape even crashes at boot.
well it is just the good idea of running a swf file in an so old system. i know, there are plenty other easy ways. but i want to create this way specifically. the gnash idea doesnt sound too far. but.. i dont know, i would need to spend a bit of time for learning how to compile this application for being compatible with win32s. actually, it isn't since it says "invalid format" (guess there are libraries and functions which win32s doesn't provide). well lets see how this works out - or maybe even not.
*Windows 3.1 - on an universal USB Stick without network stack (even with MS-DOS LAN Manager 3.x) - no way, you wont even get 127.0.0.1 to run - local file opening with IE5 or Netscape Navigator is possible, but nobody in their right mind would - flash support till Version 3 - not working practically, gnash wont work
*Windows for Workgroups 3.11 - Macromedia (not Adobe ?) Flash Player till version 3 - not really much of an flash support - gnash just doesnt want to do anything and is still invalid format
*Windows NT 3.1 - Macromedia doesnt work at all, gnash won't work crashes on some kernel-DLLs and mutters bout not having openGL
*Windows NT 3.51 - this is more what we're talking about. Gnash still stresses around, but Firefox 2.0.22 a special adapted Edition for W95 and NT3.51 *works*! i found an flash NSPSWF32.DLL which does the Job! Network works good (if you have the right network card - that is or you virtualize), and even a few flash files are playin!
so basically, if you want to go back to the past (to play some flashy games that sucks a**) windows nt 3.51 is sure an interesting approach. not too new, but not too old either. but i guess the border you can't cross with NT 3.51 is still on Macromedia Flash 8. It wont go beyond that, since Flash 9 needs lots of crypt32 DLLs as i tried to start the exefile that came with it. at least it works for my case.
another thing is: i cant install netscape 6 on NT 3.51. i wonder why. it always says that i have 0kb free space but it needs a few megs. i guess the DLLs wont get their values from the calls. so maybe nt 3.51 is still too old for netscape 6 or 7. (which is logical).
the other idea with the dos enhancer, i will try that too. its a pretty good idea.
as for OS/2.. mh nah, i tried that system one time in the past. but even almost 16 years ago it felt out of place for me. if you put it like this and go beyond the borders of using M$ and DOS, you can even send me to the holy halls of Linux where i stick probably forever with redhat linux 6.2 =D well, maybe i try this too someday.
Adobe Flash Player is set to automatically check for updates on Windows startup. I've always wondered where exactly it is set to do this. Checking the running services, as well as msconfig does not yield its location. The message in question looks like this: -an-update-to-your-adobe-flash-player-is-available-message-forever.html
I know how to disable it via Adobe's web site (instructions are included in link above), but I'm interested in knowing where exactly in Windows is this set to perform this action? I have done some research on this, and people keep saying to check the following registry locations:
This one was an entertaining puzzle, it's probably been answered elsewhere but I thought I'd let curious people know. As someone mentioned, it is the plugin module (NPSWF32.DLL in case of Netscape/Mozilla/Opera plugin) that does the check; thing is, it does not prompt the user to update immediately (it would not be able to do so with the browser open and the DLL in use anyway), but rather it defers the update until the next restart -- by adding a registry entry in HKLM (or HKCU, not positive)\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce key.
The entry is named FlashPlayerUpdate and contains \System32\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil_Plugin.exe -update plugin -- presumably the same command line you would run if you wanted to update the player manually (without the hassle with opening and closing your web browsers). The reason you don't see it in registry or with system tools like msconfig.exe is that RunOnce autostart entries are deleted from registry immediately once they are executed. Normally such entries are used by driver and Windows installations to perform one-time initialization after a reboot (once the required services are started and drivers loaded). So you would have seen that entry with msconfig, had you looked at it after the update check (which the plugin does silently), but before the reboot!
it's a setting within the flash player itself, which can be accessed in a roundabout way at that URL, which I found under the How do I change how often I receive notifications of updates? header of another link, but apparently as a new user I can't post more than one URL in an answer (because new users only use the internet one link at a time, I guess?)
While users seldom look here, this is not what a developer or systems administrator would consider a "hidden" location. It is one of the most commonly used methods to run a program at login or startup, and the only method to explicitly start a program only once.
If you look at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run keys, I'll wager you have at least a dozen programs listed there already. It's standard practice. It's certainly no less obscure than C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.
I have disabled the services and also readjusted a number of other update services and it was a huge boost for my laptop's performance. You can do that in Task Scheduler (you can find it via Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Task Scheduler).
We have flash player on our windows servers and I was assigned to uninstall them, but the catch here is that I can't use any external software therefore I can't download Flash Player Uninstaller provided by Adobe,
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I keep getting a window telling me to update my flash player as the old one is "vulnerable". I've downloaded the installer for the latest version from various locations but when I double click to open it nothing happens. I've since removed my out-dated version as I thought this might be the problem so now I have nothing. Help!
Unlike the small installer that needs to connect back to Adobe for more files, these are complete. If your firewall is blocking that connection back by the small installer, this one should resolve that issue.
I've since managed to reinstall the older version of flash player. When I go to the add ons page as detailed in the above link I was sent, and follow the instructions, the only available options for the flash player are; never activate or ask to activate, not always activate. I can now watch videos etc using the older version of flash (not everything, some sites refuse out right to recognise the flash player) but I always have to manually activate it which is a pain. I just want to install the latest version but it won't happen.
Hi cloggy_saint, Adobe's installer should have created a Flash control panel with an updater of its own. If you go into the Windows Control panel and open the Flash panel, can you find the Updates tab? I'm attaching a screenshot of what it looks like on Windows 7. Do you have it and, if so, does it work?
Progress! I used the MSI installer and it has worked but the older version of flash is being used as the default. How can I make the newer version take over? Thank you very much to everyone for their help!
What you check the version(s) of Flash Firefox is(are) using? Type or paste about:plugins in the address bar and press Enter to load that internal page. It should have tables of details for each plugin discovered by Firefox. The beginning of the file name for the Flash DLL file is npswf32 so you can use Find (Ctrl+f) to jump through the page to see whether Firefox is using multiple versions.
Just as a footnote if the non-Adobe address makes you nervous, Macromedia is the company that developed Flash, and Adobe acquired them a long time ago. I don't know why they still use old macromedia.com addresses, but this is not the only one. For example, the online version of the settings manager:
If you right-click the EXE file in Windows Explorer (if you click the little folder icon on Firefox's downloads list that should open the folder in Windows Explorer with the file selected), do you see any other options for running the program that you might try?
UPDATE: This solution works for me on Windows Vista, perhaps it will also work on Windows 7 (not sure), but many people report this solution does not work on Windows 8 or 10 because Internet Explorer has it's own built-in version of Flash and so refuses to install the file listed in this solution.