"Failed to Register" Error on XP with SP3

[cjml001]

Hi...I hope somebody can shed some light on this problem since it has become such a frustrating issue which I have researched for over a week now with no clear answer as to how to fix it!

It all started when I tried to update my Flash Player about a week ago. I have (Dell) Window's XP with SP3 and IE 8. At first I did NOT uninstall my old version of Flash Player as I thought the new one was just an update and would write over the old one. So when the new one downloaded and seemed to be doing good until about halfway through the install when it threw out an error of "Failed to Register" I just figured that maybe I did need to uninstall the old one first after all. So I uninstalled and then rebooted and did another installation, which turned out the same result -- Failure to register. I have tried various things suggested here and also by others on the Internet with no luck at all. However, I did not monkey around with the registry, I am too nervous of that sort of thing and read over and over again that those that did try that route did not have any success anyway.

Also, I want to make it clear that I am signed on as the administrator of my PC. I can make changes and have in the past so it is not that at all. I do not understand why this problem is persisting and although so many folks are having trouble with it Adobe has not found a solution that will work reliably for us.

One other note...I have also tried to update Flash Player on two other machines we have here at our house.... both of those also gave me the exact same error, the failure to register message. One of those machines is a Dell that is running Window 7 with IE 8 and the third machine is an Asus laptop running XP with IE 7 or 8...I'm not sure which and I don't have it here at the moment to check. But as you can see, with three different machines throwing up the same error message it is not just an isolated incident with my main PC. It seems to be a universal problem.

Has anyone had any luck since the last posts here where folks complained of the same thing? It's so frustrating since I rely on my main PC and can't do many of the things I used to without Flash Player available to me. I only use IE or AOL to browse the Internet. Any suggestions?

[chris.campbell]

Very strange that all three systems are failing to install at your house.  I rarely hear of this problem from customers, is there any common software (virus/security scanner) across all three systems?

Here's what I'd try:

1. Use the stand alone installers: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/installation-problems-flash-player-windows.html#main-pars_hea...

2. Try running through the steps of this FAQ: How do I fix Windows permission problems with Flash Player?

3. When launching the installer, right click and select "run as administrator"

[cjml001]

Chris,

I'm sorry I have not checked the message board but I have been pretty sick...however, I wanted to say that I did finally get Flash to install. At first, I was totally against downloading the Microsoft fix that goes into the registry to remove register keys that might have been left behind so I kept that for the very last option and only if everything else failed. Everything failed. So I downloaded the two items needed to do the job. The one item had to be unpacked and put into the same folder as the other (sorry, I can't recall what they were called and I am using my iPad and not on the PC where I have the info...) and then you click on the installer which starts the registry fix. It took several minutes (while I sweated bullets!...not real crazy about messing with the registry!) but in the end when I went back to try installing the Flash again it went off without a hitch. I did the same with the other two computers and all is well I'm happy to say! Thanks for getting back to me though. I appreciate it.

Cj

Sent from my iPad

[chris.campbell]

Glad you hear you resolved this!  I think you were referring to the two files located in this FAQ:

How do I fix Windows permission problems with Flash Player?