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What if I don't have the Shockwave Flash plug-in at all? How am I supposed to download the latest flash player to update the old when I don't have the right plug in? The site keeps sending me round in circles.

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  • Last reply by cor-el

Mockingbird
Mockingbird
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I just followed Adobe's Install Flash player instructions, uninstalling the old one and then trying to install the newest one. However, the download wouldn't go through - after I clicked "run" it would just disappear. So I troubleshot some more, and went Tools>Add-ons> plug-ins to see if the Shockwave Flash plug-in was disabled so I could enable it. But it isn't there. I've spent a while going around and around on the Firefox help site, but it sends me in circles without an option of re-installing the plug-in. It's very clear we're on an installing the plug-in page, and then all I get is an option for the same flash player download I know doesn't work. I don't understand how the download operates: does it have the plug-in contained in it? If so, why would I need one already for the Flash Player to install? And if I DO need a separate plug-in install, how am I supposed to install it when all I seem to get is the download itself? In the "troubleshooting Info" box I've included the latest thing I tried, but once I got to about:plugins, the only Adobe plug-ins listed there were Acrobat, not Flash. (I know that Flash Player doesn't belong to Firefox, so I'll contact Adobe as well, but I'd greatly appreciate any insights you can offer as it pertains to Firefox.

I just followed Adobe's Install Flash player instructions, uninstalling the old one and then trying to install the newest one. However, the download wouldn't go through - after I clicked "run" it would just disappear. So I troubleshot some more, and went Tools>Add-ons> plug-ins to see if the Shockwave Flash plug-in was disabled so I could enable it. But it isn't there. I've spent a while going around and around on the Firefox help site, but it sends me in circles without an option of re-installing the plug-in. It's very clear we're on an installing the plug-in page, and then all I get is an option for the same flash player download I know doesn't work. I don't understand how the download operates: does it have the plug-in contained in it? If so, why would I need one already for the Flash Player to install? And if I DO need a separate plug-in install, how am I supposed to install it when all I seem to get is the download itself? In the "troubleshooting Info" box I've included the latest thing I tried, but once I got to about:plugins, the only Adobe plug-ins listed there were Acrobat, not Flash. (I know that Flash Player doesn't belong to Firefox, so I'll contact Adobe as well, but I'd greatly appreciate any insights you can offer as it pertains to Firefox.

All Replies (1)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Your above posted list of installed plugins doesn't show the Flash plugin for Firefox.

See:

You can use this link to download the latest Flash player.

  1. Download and save the Flash installer for the Firefox browser to your desktop.
  2. Exit Firefox (File > Exit), you may need to verify that in the Task Manager (XP: Ctrl+Alt+Del, Vista: Shift+Ctrl+ESC, Processes tab)
  3. Start the Flash installer with a double-click on the desktop icon of the Flash installer.
  • You may have to run the Flash installer as Administrator (right-click: Run as ...) to get access rights for installing the files and modifying the registry.
  • On Vista and Windows 7 you run the plugin installer as Administrator by starting the installer via the right-click context menu if you do not get an UAC prompt to ask for permission to continue or nothing seems to happen.
  • Run the plugin installer as Administrator by starting the installer via the right-click context menu (Run as Administrator) to get elevated permissions. 
See http://vistasupport.mvps.org/run_as_administrator.htm

You can verify on the Adobe Flash Players Test Page that the Flash plugin is installed and working.
You can also check that in "Tools > Add-ons > Plugins" and on the about:plugins page, open that page like a website via the location (address) bar.