Flash Player will not install on Win XP with IE 8

[fred_durst]

I am having the same trouble as many others, please help. I am unable to install

the flash player successfully. Also, please do no refer me to the old generic threads. They have not worked. I have unins

talled every adobe product, restarted my computer and attemptted a re-install which does not work.

I am an administrator.

My system is Win XP (version 5.1 service pack 3) 32bit OS

I am running Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702

thank you

[fred_durst]

Forgot to add the message I get at the end of the install attempt is "A

ctive X control for flashplayer could not be registered"

[fred_durst]

Heck I guess I'll reply to my own post. I installed FireFox. Downloaded t

he player and it installs fine on Firefox. But guess what not on IE. Go figure, don't really want another browser. Again if anyone can help I'd apprciate it.

[pwillener]

Try downloading the offline ActiveX installer for Internet Explorer http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe; save it to disk, then close all browser windows and run the downloaded installer.

[fred_durst]

thank you for the post. My problem appears to be slightly more complicated than that.

I have downloaded the unistaller and also uninstalled all Adobe products on the PC. I then ran the installer. I get an error that refers me back to the adobe forums which are no help.

Again any help with this problem is appreciated.

[fred_durst]

This is sad. Do any questions ever get resolved on this forum? all I see are questions

with no solutions.

[Guest]

Hi, Yes, many problems do get solved. However, this is a user forum and those of us that try to help are few. Even tho the operating systems that people use are the same, the various add ons, Anti-Virus programs, etc are not.

Your second post that describes the message you received about the ActiveX Control. This tells me that something is preventing the install of it. You said you are using the Administrator account, which is a must. So next would be your Anti-Virus/Spyware or Firewall. Any adblock or pop up blocker software in use. Your security settings also come into play. If the security setting is set to block an install of ActiveX Controls, then that message would be given.

Post back what Anti-Virus program you use with a version number if possible. This is necessary as many of these programs have various components that need disabled. Does the Anti-Virus program have a Firewall and if not, do you use any third party Firewall?

Thanks,

eidnolb

[fred_durst]

Thank you for the response. I do not intend to offend but I am frustrated. I am using Norton Anti-virus. I have right-clicked on the icon and disabled during the attempted install of Adobe.

[Guest]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Just a bit of info about Norton, and this would include McAfee as well. I think what is happening is that after you run the Uninstaller and Reboot(restart) your computer and before you run the Installer, Norton automatically re-enables itself. So then it blocks the install of the ActiveX Control. The various Anti-Virus programs and their Firewalls if included work differently.

Norton 360, NIS 2009 and NIS  2010 have various components and some of these need disabled as well. That is why I asked for your version number. Most of the time, just right clicking on the icon in the system tray will not disable a couple of the components.

To have a successful Uninstall and Install of Flash Player with the Norton A/V a user has to work around it. Many users are not aware of this.

Hope this helps explain what may be happening and why.

Thanks,

eidnolb

[psychrat]

This is the solution that finally resolved this issue for me:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/494/cpsid_49419.html

I hope this works for you, too!!

A damaged Windows system registry or incorrect registry permissions settings may prevent you from installing Flash Player.

Symptoms may include:

• During installation, you see the error message "Failed to install. For Troubleshooting please see: http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_19166."
• Your Flash Player installation finishes with no error, but you cannot view Flash content in Internet Explorer.
• Some sites tell you that you do not have the correct version of Flash Player, even though you have installed the latest version.
• Some sites tell you to reinstall Flash Player, but after you do so, you see the same message.

Permissions can be tricky, but in most cases, you can install and use Adobe Flash Player if you are logged into a Windows Administrator account. If you don't know how to do this, check with your system administrator, or read your Windows documentation.

System administrators

---

If you are a system administrator, see Registry permissions required for Flash Player install or update (TechNote tn_19148).

Solution

---

Warning! By following the directions below, you will modify the Windows System Registry. A mistake could cause serious system damage, which may require you to reinstall your operating system.

If you are not comfortable editing the registry, get help from your system administrator or another IT professional.

If you choose to proceed, first back up your entire hard drive, and create a Windows System Restore Point.

Adobe Systems cannot be held responsible for damage resulting from your following these instructions.

1. Make sure you are logged into a Windows Administrator account. If you are not, you will not be able to use SubInACL.
2. Download SubInACL from the Microsoft Download Center.
3. Follow the installation instructions. Make sure you install SubInACL (subinacl.exe) to the directory C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools.
4. Download the reset_fp10.zip file.
5. Open the fp10.zip file and extract the reset_fp10.cmd file to the directory C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools\. Note that that both this file and SubInACL (subinacl.exe) must be in this directory.
6. Double-click reset_fp10.cmd. A command window will open, and SubInACL will run.
7. Do not use the machine while SubInACL is running.
8. After SubInACL finishes, you will see a prompt "Press any key to continue".
9. Install Flash Player from the Flash Player download page.
10. To confirm that your installation succeeded, visit the About Flash Player page. At the top of the screen, you should see a message that reads "Adobe Flash Player Successfully Installed."

[_mikey]

Hi

I'm having the exact same problem as fred_durst at the beginning of this thread:
Running Win XP (version 5.1 service pack 3) 32bit OS, IE 7, and am an AdministratorGot prompted a few days ago to upgrade Adobe Flash Player to 10.1.  Dutifully run the upgrade and got:
"Active X control for flashplayer could not be registered"I, like fred_durst, have no problem with Firefox - works great.  I've also tried all the fixes described in the old generic threads to no avail.So I tried the suggested course of action described in
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/494/cpsid_49419.html
It all appeared to go as described, but then I still got the exact same error when trying to run the Flash Player .exe: "Active X control for flashplayer could not be registered"So I upgraded to IE 8.  Re-ran all of the fixes, disabled McAfee, etc., etc.  Still getting:
"Active X control for flashplayer could not be registered"Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Guest]

Hi _mikey, Just a suggestion, but I think you would receive better help if you started your own thread(discussion)

McAfee is most likely your problem if you are sure you are the Administrator and using that Account.

Thanks,

eidnolb

[Guest]

I am also using Win XP, but when I click on the installer it does nothing.  Right click and it does not have a run option, only "run as..." and even that does nothing.  This forum does nothing for help as I made my own thread which does not post as it is waiting for approval.  This place is like a ghost town I guess, but I am reading through these old links just in case someone actually got an answer...

[_maria_]

Hi,

You are posting to a topic that is 6 years old.  Topics this old are usually not at all related to new issues.  In your case, you do not specify which Service Pack is installed, if any.  If you do not have Service Pack 3 (which I suspect you don't) the installer will not launch because Service Pack 2 and below lack support for the latest signing technology, sha256.  You can try using the installer posted at the bottom of the Installation problems | Flash Player | Windows 7 and earlier  page in the 'Still having problems' section.  If that doesn't work, you can try installing a previous version posted on the Archived Adobe Flash Player versions  page and opting into Background updates (update option 'Allow Adobe to install updates').  If Flash is updated that way, you'll need to upgrade to a supported operating system (minimum is XP SP3) to be able to install the latest, most secure version of Flash Player.

--

Maria

[jeromiec83223024]

Given the age of this thread, I'm going to resolve and lock it.

WinXP Service Pack 3 is the minimum version that supports SHA-2 cryptographic algorithms, which are required to securely sign software at this point.  It's also the case that WinXP is retired, and we're not even allowed to have a machine with XP on Adobe's campuses (much less on the network).

While we continue to test it in a very limited capacity, it's time to move off XP for a long list of reasons, the most important of which is that you're missing ~16 years of OS-level security mitigations.  If you don't want to move to Win10 yet, Win7 is heavily tested and supported, and there are $200 Chromebooks and $400 Win10 machines that are very capable, available at your local electronics store.

In general, if you have an old XP installation, it's far more likely that your Registry or Filesystem is corrupt.  On of the non-security benefits of Win10, is that it makes huge strides in solving the registry fragmentation problem that plagues WinXP.

You can try manually removing Flash Player, but what will typically be the case, is that you're going to hit a step where you can't delete the registry entry or file.  That's your indication that either your filesystem or registry is corrupt.  You can try using commercial utilities to fix the registry or filesystem, but doing a fresh install of XP would probably provide a huge win in terms of overall system performance (I'm a firm believer of the annual wipe and reinstall on old Windows versions, as they really do get super slow over time because of the registry fragmentation problem), and if you're going through the pain of reinstalling anyway and you have the money, moving to a secure operating system at the same time would be worth it.  That's doubly true if you're doing anything sensitive with your computer, like banking, healthcare, etc.

Performing a Clean install of Flash Player on Windows:

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/928315