What is the issue you are having? Let me confirm that you are having issues with Shockwave Flash on desktop? Can you provide the current Firefox version running and OS of the desktop?

Thanks!

Version 24.0 and Windows XP. Every time I try to update it has error message that patch failed.

If you have not shut down and restarted Windows recently, you might want to try that first. The Windows installer defers some updates until the next restart, and sometimes the installer stops working correctly when it has too many deferred updates.

To get the Firefox update, it's preferable to use the internal updater if you can, rather than trusting links that may pop up here or there. Using the "About" dialog usually gets you a reliable download:

Help > About Firefox > Check for Updates

Or if that doesn't work, you can run the "full" installer to update Firefox. You can choose your preferred language here:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/

Page hangs up and quits responding when I try a fresh download.

If the problem is with updating Flash, sometimes Adobe will recommend removing all existing Flash controls first and reinstalling fresh. Perhaps their troubleshooting page will help:

Installation problems | Flash Player | Windows

Note: sometimes if you write down the exact error message and run a search for that in your favorite search engine, you can find a very specific answer.

Did a Google search and have read til nearly blue.

Okay, let's start again, because a bunch of your description was in a different thread. There you wrote:

• Warning: Shockwave Flash is busy or quit responding.

• Not able to update, because it keeps freezing and won't let me run in Safe Mode.

• How do I fix? Having problems since around Oct. 8th.

This is some standard guidance that addresses the most common issues with the Flash Player plugin. I'm sure you've seen some of it before, but just in case:

(1) If you have any recorders/downloaders that interact with Flash media make sure they are as up-to-date as possible, or disable them temporarily.

(2) Disable hardware graphics acceleration in Firefox and in Flash

(A) In Firefox, un-check the box here and restart:

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced > General > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

(B) In Flash, see this support article from Adobe: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues

(3) Disable protected mode (Windows Vista and higher)

See this support article from Adobe under the heading "Last Resort": Adobe Forums: How do I troubleshoot Flash Player's protected mode for Firefox?

Any luck?

Hi, No, nothing is working. I'm at a point that formatting and starting new with a fresh copy of Windows 8 would be less time consuming. XP is getting rather old. I appreciate your help.

I'm not sure older computers will do well with Windows 8, but that's a topic for a different forum.

In case your computer is bogged down by unwanted software, could you try some of the scanning and cleanup tools listed in this support article: Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware.

Although any kind of "system tuning" utilities make me nervous because they could break things, you might benefit from trying to get Windows XP in better shape.