IE will NOT install Macromedia Flash
marad...@unlisted.com
This has been going on for 3 years. I am running Win98SE, IE 5.5.
Flash player used to work, then suddenly quit about 3 years ago, and I
have done everything under the sun to fix it. When I go to
macromedia.com and click the installer, it gives me and error message
and says "try again" or "cancel". It just keeps repeating this for
infinity. I have run the IE fix from Control Panel. Upgraded to 5.5
from 5.1, completely deleted the IE directory and reinstalled, removed
every instance of the words macromedia flash from the registry
(manually), deleted the entire macromedia dir (under program files),
and several other things. I even managed to download the flash player
as a file, rather than letting them do the install online. It still
dont work. I finally gave up on it several years ago, because I use
Firefox more often anyhow. But lately there are more and more sites
that wont even open without flash player and occasionally FF wont load
a page properly and I want to use IE. But that wont work either
because I cant load flash.
This is no amateurish task. so dont guess.... However, if you really
know Win98, maybe you can help. Considering all I have tried, I
highly doubt anything will fix it, in fact I am very pessimistic. But
it never hurts to ask. I cant be the only person with this problem (I
dont think).
Please DO NOT tell me to install WinXp, Reformat and reinstall
Windows, or get IE 6.x. I dont need flash that bad to go thru all
that trouble. Dont want XP or IE 6.x.
Bur maybe there is some trick ??????????????
PS. I do recall doing something before this problem occurred to allow
me to turn flash off, but if I remember correctly, I removed that too.
I have something similar in FF and with that I can just toggle it on
and off.
Thanks
Mark
lb
What are your security settings? Tools/Internet options/security tab.
They may be too high or you may have disabled the download of signed
active X controls if you are using Custom level.
Daave
> IE will NOT install Macromedia Flash.
> This has been going on for 3 years. I am running Win98SE, IE 5.5.
>
> Flash player used to work, then suddenly quit about 3 years ago, and I
> have done everything under the sun to fix it.
> PS. I do recall doing something before this problem occurred to allow
> me to turn flash off, but if I remember correctly, I removed that too.
SpywareBlaster's Flash Killer might produce what you're experiencing.
If you're running SpywareBlaser, go to Tools > Flash Killer and uncheck
the box that says "Disable and block Macromedia Flash in Internet
Explorer."
Dave
P.S. Why don't you want to upgrade to IE 6?
Elmo
In Internet Options, click General tab, Settings button, View Objects,
and check the status of the "Shockwave Flash Object". If damaged, try
its Update or Remove options. Also look in the registry for \conflict
folders. Although these folders can work without incidence, I've seen
many times where removing the Conflict folders will get the particular
ActiveX component working again.
--
Joe =o)
marad...@unlisted.com
I'm not using Spyware Blaster. I have AdAware, A-Squared and Spybot
I have all Active-X components enabled, in fact everything is enabled
except Stored cookies and something about installing software without
asking. I am using custom settings but the security is very low.
This is why I dont use IE very often and use FF instead. I most use
IE when I need all that stuff that can cause problems, but keep it to
sites that appear safe.
I installed IE 6 when it first came out and it completely crashed my
system. I had to reinstall Windows to get rid of it. All I ever hear
is troubles with it, and besides that it's likely my Pentium 233mhz is
too slow to run it. On the other hand, Firefox 1.0 works just fine
and they say that FF needs a minimum 300mhz computer and recommend a
500. However, I have double the memory required. I read on the
mozilla newsgroup to avoid the higher version of firefox on a slow
computer like this and FF works just fine as it is.
marad...@unlisted.com
wrote:
Geezzz, I never knew that was there.....
It shows that Shockwave is installed and gives a whole string of
numbers that I ttried to copy and paste but it wont let me. But as far
as I know, Shockwave and flash are two different things. It says
nothing about Flash in there.
By the way, I forgot to mention in my last post that I ran the
Macromedia flash uninstaller several times too.
What should I look for in the registry? Do I actually search for the
word "conflict"?
Thanks
Mark
Lee
First download this:
http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab
Use WinZip or similar to extract the contents to a work folder. Open
Swflash.inf with Notepad or similar and look for this line:
HKLM,"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\%GUID%","Compatibility Flags",,"0"
Replace with:
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\%GUID%","Compatibility Flags",0x00010001,00,00,00,00
Then be sure to add at least one blank line to the end of the above
file, Save it and then right click it to select 'Install'. Flash
Player 8 is now installed, you may now delete all items in the work
folder.
The above corrections fix some perhaps not so innocent defects in the
original installation .inf file. The text substitute above allows a
proper Dword value to be installed in the registry instead of the
probably not working at all String value. This comes into play when
altering the registry to turn Flash off for those who like that option
(me).
The lack of a blank line at the end of the original installation inf
file prevents the inf file itself from being copied to the Windows/INF
folder for use in UNINSTALLATION. Macromedia being very clever, put an
uninstallation line into Add/Remove Progams list for Flash Player 8 but
since the inf file is not copied to the INF folder it don't work - I'm
on to you people...
To wit:
; Copy and Paste into Notepad, Save as TogFlash.inf file in a work
; folder. Right click this inf file and select 'Install', this file
; will be moved to your INF folder for future installations, for
; use look in Add/Remove Programs for 'Remove' to toggle the Flash
; player on or off and to remove this option from that list.
[Version]
Signature="$Chicago$"
[DefaultInstall.NT]
AddReg = Togitoff
DelReg = ClearReg
CopyFiles = ThisInf
[DefaultInstall]
AddReg = Togitoff
DelReg = ClearReg
CopyFiles = ThisInf
[DefaultUninstall]
AddReg = LeaveON
DelReg = ClearReg, RemTog
[DefaultUninstall.NT]
AddReg = LeaveON
DelReg = ClearReg, RemTog
[Toggleon]
AddReg = Togiton
DelReg = ClearReg
[Toggleoff]
AddReg = Togitoff
DelReg = ClearReg
[DestinationDirs]
ThisInf = 17
[Togiton]
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\%GUID%","Compatibility Flags",0x00010001,00,00,00,00
HKLM,SoftWare\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\"Toggle
Flash","DisplayName",,"Remove to Toggle Flash back OFF"
HKLM,SoftWare\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\"Toggle
Flash","UninstallString",,"rundll32.exe advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection
%17%\TogFlash.inf, Toggleoff"
[Togitoff]
HKLM,"Software\CLASSES\inffile\shell\APInst",,,"Active I&nstall"
HKLM,"Software\CLASSES\inffile\shell\APInst\command",,,"rundll32.exe
advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %1, DefaultInstall"
HKLM,"Software\CLASSES\inffile\shell\APUninst",,,"Active &Uninstall"
HKLM,"Software\CLASSES\inffile\shell\APUninst\command",,,"rundll32.exe
advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %1, DefaultUninstall"
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\%GUID%","Compatibility Flags",0x00010001,00,04,00,00
HKLM,SoftWare\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\"Toggle Flash
INF","DisplayName",,"Remove Toggle Flash INF"
HKLM,SoftWare\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\"Toggle Flash
INF","UninstallString",,"rundll32.exe advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection
%17%\TogFlash.inf, DefaultUninstall"
HKLM,SoftWare\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\"Toggle
Flash","DisplayName",,"Remove to Toggle Flash back ON"
HKLM,SoftWare\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\"Toggle
Flash","UninstallString",,"rundll32.exe advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection
%17%\TogFlash.inf, Toggleon"
[ClearReg]
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\%GUID%","Compatibility Flags",,
[RemTog]
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Toggle Flash"
HKLM,"SoftWare\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Toggle Flash
INF"
[LeaveON]
HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ActiveX
Compatibility\%GUID%","Compatibility Flags",0x00010001,00,00,00,00
[SourceDisksNames]
55=,"",0
[SourceDisksFiles]
TogFlash.inf=55
[ThisInf]
TogFlash.inf,,,32
[Strings]
GUID = "{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11CF-96B8-444553540000}"
; end of inf file, you may copy, paste, and save the instructions above
; as well as these lines if you like - it will still work properly.
;
; This inf file also installs 'Active Install' and 'Active Uninstall'
; choices for right clicking of inf files. This 'better' method of
; invoking an inf uses the more talented pair of rundll32.exe and
; advpack.dll instead of the 'stock' pair of rundll.exe and setupx.dll
; which can not do some of the more modern inf file installations.
Elmo
Yes, look for \Conflict. That's "\" followed by "conflict". The folder
will actually be named C:\Windows\Downloaded Program Files\Conflict.1 or
a similar name such as C:\Windows\Downlo~1\Conflict.001
Not all ActiveX components are related to Flash or Shockwave. You can
right-click one to see if the properties say "Damaged", Update it, or
Remove it. If needed, it will be reinstalled. If there are a lot of
alpha-numeric characters in the description of an ActiveX component, the
file could be damaged. An ActiveX component of Shockwave that may, or
may not be your problem with the Shockwave install.. It was just a
suggestion on a possible fix.
--
Joe =o)