Is there an archive page for Flash Player plugins for PORTABLE versions of web browsers?

[digiday]

Is there an archive page for downloads of Flash Player plugin installers for the PORTABLE versions of web browsers like Firefox ESR?

One of my web browsers is Firefox ESR 10.0.7 and it is a PORTABLE version of Firefox that apparently needs a different Flash Player plugin than the normal Flash Player plugin that regular versions of most web browsers require.

I do not want to install the most recent Flash Player plugin PORTABLE version because I've read about problems with it and that's the only version that this Firefox ESR will give me the option to download and install when I try to install the needed Flash Player plugin through the browser.

I already know about the normal Adobe Flash Player plugin archive page, linked below, but that does not have the Flash Player plugins for PORTABLE web browsers.

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions.html

I also looked on OldApps.com and I couldn't find anything there.

Where can I download an older version, possibly one of the 11.2 Flash Player plugins from around April 2012, that will work with this PORTABLE version Firefox ESR?

I tried this question on the Mozilla Firefox help forum but no one could answer it.

Thanks for any help,

digiday

[pwillener]

Why do you think portable browsers need a different plugin?

[digiday]

Hi Pat,

Thanks for you reply... but this isn't exactly the answer I was hoping for, or an answer at all... more like another question, eh?

There are several reasons why I thought that a PORTABLE browser like Firefox ESR takes a different Flash Player plugin of its own...

1) This browser will not see the Flash Player plugin that I already have installed in my Windows 7 system that my other Firefox web browser was able to see after I installed it.

So Firefox ESR 10.0.7 is not seeing the Flash Player plugin v 11.2.208.228 that I already have installed.

2) Since portable apps can work from a Flash drive and they don't work from or  see the many  system files that are contained in system software and 3rd party plugins, like Flash, usually they contain their own plugins if they need them, such as the Flash Plugin that this PORTABLE browser is asking for.

3) When I navigate to the location of my PORTABLE Firefox ESR - FirefoxPortable>App>DefaultData>Plugins - there is no Flash Player plugin, but there is a text document that, when opened, reads, "Place Firefox plugins in this directory (Flash, Shockwave, etc)"

Now, that is telling me to place the Flash plugin in that plugins folder, not to install it by way of a normal Flash Player plugin installer.

Yet when I naviagate to my normal Firefox folder at C>Programs>Mozilla Firefox>Plugins - there IS a plugin called  "get Plus Plus for Adobe 16291" that I'm figuring is some link to the existing Flash Player plugin v 11.2.208.228 that is already installed on this computer.

4) And when I installed my newer normal Firefox browser (not the portable version) over the previous one, it didn't need to have the Flash Player plugin re-installed... it just saw my existing Flash Player plugin... but this PORTABLE Firefox ESR is not seeing that existing Flash Player plugin v 11.2.208.228 like my other regular installed Firefox is.

So is there a solution?

Thanks,

digiday

[pwillener]

I have never used portable Firefox, so I don't know any details about it.  So thank you for explaining things to me.

What I would try is to copy the nppdf32.dll from the Firefox plugins folder to the portable's plugins folder.  No idea if this will work or not.

Maybe someone from the Adobe team has some ideas?  Or perhaps it's worth to ask in the Firefox forum?

[digiday]

Hi Pat,

Thanks for your reply.

The nppdf32.dll file that you are recommending that I copy and paste in to my Firefox ESR PORTABLE plugins folder is identified as a PDF plugin, not a Flash plugin, thus the name, npPDF32.dll.  So I'm not sure why you would expect the PDF plugin to work as a Flash plugin.

And I checked and there is no Flash Player plugin in the plugins folder for my normal Firefox browser.  As I said before, there is only an "Adobe get Plus Plus 16291" plugin, and it is named "np_gp.dll".  There is one other plugin file in that folder and it is named "np-mswmp.dll" and it is a "Microsoft Windows Media Player Firefox" plugin.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to follow to try to find this plugin that does apparently exist somewhere on this computer... that's why I'm assuming that my normal Firefox browser is using the system Flash Player plugins that show up under Control Panel>Programs and Features>Adobe Flash Player 11 Plugin (11.2.202.228) and Adobe Flash Player 11 ActiveX (11.2.202.235)... but I don't know where those actual plugin files would be located to try to copy and paste them in to my Firefox ESR PORTABLE plugins folder, and I fear that they wouldn't be the right types of files to place in that folder anyway.

Now, in my Google Chrome browser folder at User>AppData>Local>Google>Chrome>Application>21.0.1180.89 there is a Flash Player file called "flashplayerapp.exe", but that actually appears with the Flash Player icon and it is an exe file, not a plugin file, so I doubt that would translate to be used as a plugin for Firefox ESR PORTABLE.  I've also read that Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari all use a different type of system to display Flash content, different from the Flash Player plugin that Firefox requires.

And as I wrote above, I've already asked this same question on the Mozilla Firefox help forum and no one could answer it... all I got was some guy who kept trying to tell me to use the Flash Player 10.3 instead but he couldn't tell me how to get that in to my Firefox ESR PORTABLE plugins folder, and we went round and round on the subject.  There was one other guy who kept talking about Linux, for whatever reason, and he kept getting Linux version numbers mixed up with his conversation about Firefox... I don't think he was actaully reading my original question very well and he really didn't seem to be following along.

And okay, you are recommending that maybe the "Adobe Team" has some ideas... so where do I find them?... aren't they supposed to be on this forum, at least occasionally?

Thanks,

digiday

[pwillener]

My apologies; it seems that I was especially stupid yesterday when I recommended you to copy nppdf32.dll - of course this is the Adobe Reader plugin.

The Flash Player plugin is NPSWF32_11_4_402_278.dll located in C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash (or C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash on 64-bit systems).  Try if copying this works.  If not, can you try to rename it to NPSWF32.dll ?

Flash Player team members do regularly show up in this forum.  If my latest suggestion does not work, I will alert someone to have a look at this topic.

[pwillener]

P.S. not sure if you also need to copy flashplayer.xpt from the same folder.

[digiday]

Hi Pat,

Thanks again for your reply. Your solutions seemed like they might work, especially since you were able to tell me where the Windows system Flash Player plugin files are located.

And for a minute or two, I thought it was working.  In my first tests in the PORTABLE Firefox browser I'm testing with, it was actually playing some YouTube videos, but then I found that not all YouTube videos apparently rely on Flash to play... apparently some do and some do not, and I found that most of them do require Flash to play.  I had tested with some of my own videos that I uploaded to YouTube in the past in my first tests today and they played just fine, but then I started testing with some other Flash YouTube videos and they would not play and I got both the yellow bar at the top of my window telling me to download and install Flash as well as the red banner across the video player that told me I needed to install Flash.

Let me also make it clear that I'm testing this on other sites with Flash videos besides YouTube, and webpages that have relatively simple animated Flash graphics, and those alternate tests are showing that the Flash Player plugin for this PORTABLE Firefox still will not work either.

So to spite everything, I tried actually downloading and installing the newest Flash Player plugin, 11.4 something, (which I was trying to avoid) through the browser, and that only proceeded to overwrite my Windows system Flash Player plugin and it DID NOT place any Flash Player plugin files in the PORTABLE Firefox plugins folder.

I had pasted in the files you recommended in to the PORTABLE Firefox plugins folder, and I actaully included ALL the files from that Windows system Flash plugin folder for this test, but unfortunately that didn't work, and even after I tried changing the name of that one file, it still didn't work.

And I am closing and re-opening the browser in between each of these steps in my test.

So here, below, I'm including an email letter that I've now written to a Tor Browser support email address where I had been corresoponding previously.  The "Tor-Firefox" web browser is the PORTABLE Firefox ESR web browser that I've been referring to.  This is what I wrote, which pretty much sums up everything I've tried and been unsuccessful with so far...

__________________________________________

Hello Tor Browser help staff,

I've now tried everything and I cannot get ANY Flash content to play in this Tor-Firefox ESR web browser, even though I've tried installing the Flash player plugin that this browser asks for when I'm on a YouTube page (and even though this computer already had a current Flash Player plugin installed previously).

Let me make it clear that privacy is not important to me right  now during this quest to make the Flash Player plugin work with this Tor browser... I can reset any settings for maximum privacy later when I go back to that purpose for using Tor... right now, I'm just trying to make the Tor browser play Flash content.

So even though I've UNCHECKED the Torbutton>Preferences>Security  Settings>Disable plugin during Tor usage box, and I installed a new Flash player plugin THROUGH this browser, and I even set it to allow all scripts because I thought maybe that was complicating things, IT STILL WILL NOT PLAY FLASH CONTENT OF ANY TYPE.

Now, this, explained below, could be part of the problem that I'd like to ask for your help or SOMEONE's help with there in your department...

If I go to the Tor Browser folder on my hard drive at C:>Tor  Browser>FirefoxPortable>Data>plugins there are NO Flash plugin files that show up in that folder even after I install a new Flash Player plugin THROUGH this browser... I believe that is why it will not play Flash content. 

All it does when I install a Flash Player plugin through this Tor browser is to overwrite my Windows 7 system Flash Player plugin, but it does not actually place any Flash Player plugin files in the C:>Tor Browser>FirefoxPortable>Data>plugins folder, so that's why this PORTABLE version of the Firefox ESR browser will not play any Flash content... and it doesn't work from the Windows system Flash Player plugin the way that my normal Firefox (NON-TOR) web browser does.  My other Firefox web browser sees the the Windows system Flash Player plugin just fine and it does play Flash content correctly.

There is, however, one text file that comes stock inside the Tor browser plugins folder and when it is opened it says, "Place Firefox plugins in this directory (Flash, Shockwave, etc)".

So with some advice from someone on the Adobe help forum, I tried copying the Flash Player plugin files from the Windows system folder at C:>Windows>System32>Macromed>Flash in to the Tor browser plugins folder at C:>Tor  Browser>FirefoxPortable>Data>plugins, and that still didn't work. 

Note that I am closing and re-opening the Tor browser between each of these tests.

So I then followed some further advice from the expert on the Adobe help forum and I changed the name of the main Flash Player plugin file that I had copied and pasted in to the Tor browser plugins folder from "NPSWF32_11_4_402_278.dll" to "NPSWF32.dll", and that still did not work... note that I left all the other files that I copied and pasted from the Windows system Flash plugins folder with the same name they originally had... I tried only changing that one Flash plugin file name, as instructed by the expert on the Adobe help forum.

I also tried posting a question about this on the Mozilla Firefox forum, but no one there is able to answer this question.

What the problem seems to be is that when this Tor-Firefox ESR 10.0.7 browser installs a Flash Player plugin, it just installs it to the Windows system folder (the same way that the normal (non-Tor) Firefox browser does) and  NOT  into the Tor-Firefox plugins folder C:>Tor  Browser>FirefoxPortable>Data>plugins, as would be needed for it to be able to play Flash content.

No matter what I do, whenever I try to view a YouTube video or any Flash video in this browser, or any Flash graphic content at all, I get the yellow bar at the top of the page that says "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page - Install Missing Plugins" and there is a banner displayed where the Flash content is supposed to be that says, "The Adobe Flash Player is required for video playback - Get the latest Flash Player".

And as I explained at the top of this email, I have already installed and re-installed the Flash Player plugin on this computer multiple times, including doing it directly through this Tor-Firefox ESR browser itself.

So can ANYONE there tell me how to get the correct Flash Player plugin files in to the Tor-Firefox browser plugins folder at C:>Tor  Browser>FirefoxPortable>Data>plugins, and where do I get those files?  Everything I've tried, which is pretty extensive, has not worked, and it seems that someone there should know about this.

Thanks for your help.

__________________________

[pwillener]

Please let us know when you get a reply.  Sorry that my suggestions did not work.

[digiday]

Thanks Pat.

But actually I'd like to see if there will be an Adobe employee on this forum that can answer this question.

When I've sent questions to the Tor-Firefox email support staff previously on this topic, nothing has been resolved.  I have now been instructed by those people to join some Tor-Browser mailing list in order to submit the same question again that I included above.

Previously, on this Adobe forum, I had a different Flash question answered correctly and succinctly by a gentleman named Chris Campbell.  I'd sure like to see if he can add anything to this conversation. I just sent him a PM directing him to this thread.

Thanks again,

digiday

[digiday]

Hi Pat,

Well, the torproject email list hasn't been very benficial at all.  One guy answered my question with some reply about using the Linux version and downloading videos and playing them in some other player... not an answer at all to my question.

And otherwise all this mailing list does is get you about a hundred emails a day for every single post that everyone else makes to the email list so you get a ton of emails about things that have nothing to do with your question.  I don't know why they don't have a regular help forum.  This just ends up like being on a tech help forum where you get notifications for every single question that is posted in the forum and for every single reply, regardless of the topic.

I don't know what happened to Chris Campbell... maybe he's on vacation.

It sure seems that someone at Adobe would know how their own Flash plugins are supposed so work with PORTABLE web browser apps.

Since there is text document in the plugins folder for this Firefox ESR PORTABLE browser that says, "Place Firefox plugins in this directory (Flash, Shockwave, etc)", that pretty much indicates that it can work, somehow.

Anyway, thanks again, Pat, for your previous recommendations... it seems like that should have worked... maybe there's just some other minor tweak to your solution that will make it work.

digiday

[chris.campbell]

@digiday - This isn't something that we test against (or officialy support) but I was able to get this working using the following steps:

1. Download and install the latest 10.3 Flash Player release

2. Download and install the Firefox portable edition from: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable/test

3. In the device/folder you've installed Firefox into, navigate into \App\Firefox

4. Create a folder named "plugins"

5. Back in Windows, navigate to the plugin installed in step one (since I'm running win7 x64, that's c:\windows\syswow64\macromed\flash.  If you have a 32bit system, you'll go to c:\windows\system32\macromed\flash)

6. Copy the files flashplayer.xpt and npswf32.dll into the plugins folder created in step 4.

At this point, I can now launch Firefox portable and view Flash content using the plugin on my USB drive.

Hope this helps,

Chris

[digiday]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for you reply.

The version of the portable Firefox app that I'm using is the Tor-Firefox ESR 10.0.7... this comes specifically with the Tor web browser software package that also includes and works with the Vidalia control panel.  This software works together and this portable Firefox ESR browser has some specific Tor browser controls in it, so I don't have the option of using whatever version of Firefox portable that I want to, as you are recommending.

Here is the download page for the Tor-Firefox web browser...

https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en

So as I described above, I'm using the Tor-Firefox ESR 10.0.7 browser and it already has its own plugins folder. And as I described above, there is a text document inside that plugins folder that says, "Place Firefox plugins in this directory (Flash, Shockwave, etc)".

Is there a difference in how this will work between using the Flash Player plugin 10.3 and one of the more recent Flash plugins like the 11.4 version that I described above?

Other than those two things, the procedure I described above that I tried is the same as what you are recommending and it is the same basic procedure that Pat Willener recommended, verbatim.

Is there something about the Flash Player 10.3 that makes this work, whereas other more recent Adobe Flash Player plugin files won't work?

Thanks,

digiday

[digiday]

Hi Chris,

I just tried installing the Flash Player 10.3, then copying those Flash plugin files that you and Pat recommended to the Firefox Portable plugins folder and it still doesn't work.

And I did close and re-open the Firefox Portable browser after copying those files to its plugins folder.

See the screenshot below showing the Tor-Firefox ESR 10.0.7 Portable browser requesting the Flash Player with the Flash Player download panel that comes from clicking the "Install Missing Plugins" button at the top of the browser page, along with the Firefox Portable plugins folder window showing the plugins that are installed.

How are you getting it to work?... is there some step or minor thing that you might be leaving out of your instructions?  Now I've tried it both by copying in the Flash 11.4 plugin files and by using the Flash 10.3 plugin files as you instructed but it still isn't working.

This Flash Player 10.3 that I've now installed on this computer does work fine in my other, normally installed Firefox browser, but it doesn't require that I copy the Flash plugin files to a plugins folder of its own, or course.

PS: Where do I find the matching ActiveX installer for this 10.3 version Flash plugin?  When I unistalled my Flash 11.2 plugin before installing the 10.3 that you instructed, I also uninstalled my ActiveX plugin because in the installer folder for the 11.2 Flash plugin there is also a seperate installer for the Adobe ActiveX plugin, so I thought the versions need to match for both plugins... but there is no ActiveX installer that comes with this version 10.3 Flash plugin installer.  I tried installing my 11.2 ActiveX plugin via the installer that came with the 11.2 Flash plugin installer package, but it won't install now and it gives me an error message that says that it needs to install the MOST RECENT version of the ActiveX plugin installer.

But when I do a search for ActiveX installers on the Adobe site, I can only find ActiveX DEBUGGER installers, which isn't the same thing, I don't believe... the Adobe site doesn't show any plain ActiveX plugin installers in a search, and my 11.2 version won't install now... I get the error message telling me that it wants the most recent version of the ActiveX plugin.

What exactly does the ActiveX plugin do and what will it affect if I don't have it installed?... I can see that it is now missing in the Programs list in my Control Panel, whereas it showed up as a seperate app previously.

Thanks,

digiday

[chris.campbell · Accepted solution]

I ran into the same problem with the version of Firefox portable I tried.  I ended up ignoring the folder (with the text file) that they provided and created my own "plugins" folder alongside the firefox executable.

As for why I went with 10.3 over 11.4, that was mainly because we added protected mode in Flash Player 11.3.  While this might work (it didn't with my first attempt), it adds a layer of complexity that I didn't want to deal with.  If you need some of the newer features of 11.x, then you'll have to play around with this to see if you can get this working.  One thing to try would be to modify the mms.cfg by disabling protected mode, however, I don't know if this file can be accessed outside of your windows\system32\macromed\flash folder.

You can find all versions of 10.3 here: Where can I find direct downloads of Flash Player 10.3 for Windows or Macintosh?

[digiday]

Thanks Chris!  That worked! Finally! Amazing!

Wow, it seems that whoever set up that other original plugins folder and the text doc inside with this version of Firefox Portable really screwed the pooch.

Would you by chance know anything about my now missing ActiveX plugin that I described in the PS part at the end of my last post?

Thanks again, so much,

digiday

[digiday]

Hi again Chris,

Well, now I'm going to post a new question about why my ActiveX plugin installer gives and error message during the installation... here is the link...

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1080846

Thanks,

digiday

Message was edited by: digiday