How to NOT install FlashPlayer MGM icon in ControlPanel after FlashPlayer10.3.181.14 installed ?

[AskQ]

Hello !

I have done the silent installation, but a Flash Player management setting icon appear in Control Panel.

Please see the screen capture in the attachment.

How to NOT install FlashPlayer MGM icon in ControlPanel after FlashPlayer10.3.181.14 installed ?

Many Thanks !

Message was edited by: AskQ

[chris.campbell]

The native control panel is a new feature of Flash Player 10.3.  As far as I know, it is not possible to selectively install this.  I'll post again if I find out otherwise.

Thanks,

Chris

[pwillener]

Interesting; I did not know about this.

Unfortunately I do not find this in my Control Panel; is it for certain Windows versions only?  (This computer is still on Windows 2000.)

[Matt_Talistu]

Yes, the new Flash Player Control Panel applet only supports Windows XP and later.

[AskQ]

Thanks Chris !!

Is there any update or progress ?

Cheers & Thanks again

[kitty_91]

There is nothing wrong with having the Flash icon in the control panel.  Rather it makes it easier to clear out your flash settings rather having to load the flash control panel in your browser.

[AskQ]

Thanks for your reply.

We are not allow users (more than 3000 users) to change any setting of Flash Player, so it might need to hide the setting icon in Control Panel.

Thanks

[Mournie]

Hi AskQ,

you may try to rename or delete the following file:

x86: C:\WINDOWS\system32\FlashPlayerCPLApp.cpl

x64: C:\WINDOWS\sysWOW64\FlashPlayerCPLApp.cpl

Greetz

Message edited by MourneProof

[Matt_Talistu]

The MMS.cfg file will properly override any settings made via the Native Control panel, similar to how it overrides any changes made via the previous web-based Online Settings Manager.

You can leave the Native Control Panel installed and still manage the settings of your 3000 users the same way you did with Flash Player 10.2 and earlier.

Are you using mms.cfg to manage the Flash Player settings for your users?

[AskQ]

Thanks !

The best and the ideal method is NOT allow users to change any setting of the Flash Player, so hidding/remove the Flash Player icon in Control Panel is the best way to handle this situation. The MMS.cfg only is a passive way to do this and the distribution and maintain this file to more than 3000 workstations are also need to take time to concern.

Thanks Again !

[370H55V]

Unless the 3,000 users are admins can't you restrict access to the control panel completely? I have my daughter and my dad "cut off" from access to the control panel (XP and Win 7).

[AskQ]

Thanks for your adivce !

We can not do this since different users have different rights and we can not control that kind of user to login to a specific computers. It involve a huge effort to do this no matter in server side or client side, so it is not worth.

The best way should be not install the Flash Player setting in Control Panel then no user can set anything.

Thanks !

[Mournie]

Hi,

did you try to rename/remove FlashPlayerCPLApp.cpl???

This will let the Flashplayer Settings icon disappear in the control panel after reboot.

During install you cannot exclude the control panel icon. At least I found no way to do so.

Greetings M.

[AskQ]

Hello !

Thanks for your advice !

For Remove or Rename the filename, since we are not sure the following issues, we would not do this.

(1) Does it affect the Flash Player operation for any web site ?

(2) Would any side effect happen ?

(3) The most concern issue is that , Would it affect the next flash player update if remove or rename the filename ?

Therefore, the ideal way is if Adobe can provide an option or switch to not install such icon during Flash Player installation.

Thanks again !

[Matt_Talistu]

I understand your request, but I don't think removing the Native Control Panel will completely fix your problem. Perhaps the new Control Panel icon is more visible to users than the web-based Settings Manager, but there really isn't much of a difference from a "prevent users from modifying their settings" perspective between 10.3 and previous releases of Flash Player.

Even with the Native Control Panel icon removed, users can still use the Online Settings Manager (the web-based one) to change their settings. In fact, if the Native Control Panel is removed or missing, Flash Player will fall back to the Online Settings Manager when users select "Global Settings..." from the player's context menu.

Do you have a seperate method in place to somehow prevent users from accessing the Online Settings Manager to modify their settings?

I understand your issue, and perhaps the Native Control Panel could be an optional install for system administrators in the future, but I am not sure that manually removing the Native Control Panel will completely prevent your users from modifying their Flash Player settings.

[Mournie]

Hi,

to prevent users from accessing the Online Settings Manager you just need to block:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/

settings_manager.html

settings_manager02.html

settings_manager03.html

settings_manager04.html

settings_manager05.html

settings_manager06.html

settings_manager07.html

settings_manager08.html

settings_manager09.html

in your Firewall/Proxy.

Alternatively you can block the whole macromedia.com domain.

Again as said before: If you use mms.cfg to enrole settings to all users they are overwriting all user defined settings. So it does not matter what the user changed in the Control Panel or in the Online Settings Manager.

regards M.

[AskQ]

Hello ! Thanks for your advice.

Since most users are layman, they do not have the intention to change any flashplayer settings if they can not see the setting manager icon in Control Panel.

Futhermore, they also would not spend their time to search for any change Flash Player setting on-line.

That is, if no icon shown in Control Panel, no one would care about the Flash Player setting.

I think the better way is that if there is an option to choose during the installation or a switch in the installation command line for not install this setting manager should be the ideal way or method.

Many Thanks !