Two versions (9 and 11) of Flash installed

[TheodoreG]

My Firefox Add-ons Manager shows two entries for Shockwave Flash:

Shockwave Flash 11.8.800.94

Shockwave Flash 9.0.45.0

For the version 9 entry, there is a warning "Shockwave Flash is known to be vulnerable and should be updated".  If I click the "Disable" button for this, it also disables the version 11 entry.  Then, if I return to Add-ons mananager, it will show both versions 9 and 11 disabled.  If I click "Enable" for the version 11 entry, then both versions 9 and 11 are enabled.

This is with Firefox 22.0, Windows XP SP3.  I also have Adobe Creative Suite CS3 and Adobe Reader XI installed.

I ran a file search for files with the string "NPSWF32" in the name.  Apart from the version 11 dll ("NPSWF32_11_8_800_94.dll"), there were six files named "NPSWF32.dll" on my system in these locations:

C:\i386

C:\WINDOWS\system32

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Bridge CS3\browser\plugins

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Contribute CS3\Configuration\Plugins

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\configuration\Plugins

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS3\AIK\runtimes\air\win\Adobe AIR\Versions\1.0

I do not know whether all of the above copies of the DLL are necessary or causing problems; however, I do wonder whether Firefox's warning about a real or phantom Flash version 9 security problem should be addessed.  If so, what do I do?

[C_F_McBlob]

Use the Shockwave uninstaller to remove all versions. The download the FULL installer from here: http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/shockwave/uninstall/win/sw_uninstaller.exe

[pwillener]

You have the latest Flash Player version (11.8.800.94) installed.

However, you also have older versions in CS3; I am not sure if you can just replace these with newer versions, or if Dreamweaver will break if you do so.

We also do not know from where Firefox is loading the 9.0 plugin.

What I would try if I were encountering your situation:

• rename the NPSWF32.dll entries in all CS3 folders (e.g. to NPSWF32.dll.old)
• copy NPSWF32_11_8_800_94.dll to these folders, and rename it back to NPSWF32.dll

[TheodoreG]

Replace the old DLL files in just the CS3 directories?  What about the first three directories (not for CS3) that I listed?  That is,

C:\i386

C:\WINDOWS\system32

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader

[pwillener]

C:\i386 is your Windows install source; I would not touch it.

C:\WINDOWS\system32 is your Windows install folder; perhaps you can replace it in here.

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader is the Adobe Reader install folder; NPSWF32.dll is currently version 11.5 - this will be replaced with the next Reader update.

[TheodoreG]

Firefox was warning about a Flash 9.0.45.0 that it found.  I checked the versions I have installed and found these:

C:\i386

9.0.115.0

C:\WINDOWS\system32

9.0.45.0

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader

11.5.502.110

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Bridge CS3\browser\plugins

9.0.45.0

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Contribute CS3\Configuration\Plugins

9.0.45.0

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Dreamweaver CS3\configuration\Plugins

9.0.45.0

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS3\AIK\runtimes\air\win\Adobe AIR\Versions\1.0

9.0.115.0

Where does the Flash uninstall utility look for components?  If it just looks in systemwide shared areas (like C:\WINDOWS\system32), then that would make sense.  On the other hand, if the uninstall utility removes stuff from non-shared applications (like each of the CS3 components -- Dreamweaver, Bridge, etc.), then that could clobber those applications.

I am wondering whether uninstalling, not replacing, just the copy of the version 9 DLL in C:\WINDOWS\system32 would be workable, since I have a shared version 11 DLL installed elsewhere, and other applications (like Firefox) should not be looking in the CS3 directories for DLLs to load.

[pwillener]

I do not know how the Flash Player uninstaller works; if it just looks in the FP install folder C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash, or if it goes looking for registered Flash DLLs.

I also do not know how Firefox goes looking for Flash Player plugins, but the most likely location is C:\Windows\system32

[TheodoreG]

I ended up fixing the problem simply by removing C:\Windows\system32\NPSWF32.dll .  I think that represented the outdated DLL file that posed the conflict for Firefox.  (The other location, for the current DLL, is C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32_11_8_800_94.dll .)

I think replacing or removing any of the DLL files related to the CS3 installation would have only caused problems for the CS3 applications, and did not seem to be involved in this conflict of Firefox plugins.

Apparently the original cause of the conflict was that the Adobe Flash 11 installer did not clean up the older Flash 9 installation in C:\Windows\system32\ , leaving Firefox to find both Flash DLLs.