Flash Player installs but is not recognized

[Guest]

I installed Flash Player but when I try to run a program like Shutterfly that requires it, it says it is not installed. I keep redoing the installation with the same results. HELP!!!!!

I use Windows 7 and Internet Explored 10

[C_F_McBlob · Accepted solution]

Download the followoing files by right clicking ans selecting "Save target as"

Flash Player Uninstaller

Flash Player for ActiveX (Internet Explorer)

Flash Player Plug-in (All other browsers)

Save ALL files to your Downloads folder - DO NOT RUN anything yet.

Reboot your system.

BEFORE opening anything else, go to your Downloadsa folder and run the UNINSTALLER to remove all instances of Flash Player.

Next, run the ActiveX Installer.

Lastly, run the Installer for other browsers.

Once Flash Player is installed go to: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/#sp

Download BOTH files, the one on the right FIRST by right clicking and selecting "Save target as"... the other by clicking and following the steps to dwonload the FULL ActiveX installer.

Once everything is installed, see:Enabling Flash Player in Internet Explorer  and: ActiveX Filtering in Internet Explorer  to make 100% sure that Flash Player is enabled and NOT being blocked by ActiveX controls.

[Guest]

Many thanks. After enabling the add-on AND rebooting after that change, following all of your steps worked.

Wade

[Athaena28]

Nope, didn't work.  I'll try again tomorrow.

[hankbuck]

Mike M:

It was a beautiful answer but it didnt work for my IE 11 with windows 7 on my desktop HP Pavilion d4650e. It appeared to install after download but would not appear in the all programs line up when hitting start button. It just appeared in control panel. This was when I was having problems running something in shutterfly. Then a week later I was trying to use a usage program from my electric company and no go. BUT, I was able to use Chrome and get flash player to work. ?????????????

[C_F_McBlob]

hankbuck wrote:

Mike M:

It was a beautiful answer but it didnt work for my IE 11 with windows 7 on my desktop HP Pavilion d4650e. It appeared to install after download but would not appear in the all programs line up when hitting start button. It just appeared in control panel. This was when I was having problems running something in shutterfly. Then a week later I was trying to use a usage program from my electric company and no go. BUT, I was able to use Chrome and get flash player to work. ?????????????

It's NOT a program. It's a "plug-in" for your browser. In essence, a "piece" of another program.

If you want to find it, go to C/Windows/System32/Macromed/Flash and C/Windows/SysWOW64/Macromed/Flash.

You'll see the plug-in files there. There is a "standalone" Flash Player (Flash Player 12 Projector) which IS a program, but unless you specifically and manually add it to your start menu, it won't appear there either.

Your problems with IE11 are just that; problems with IE11.

Specifically, "User-Agent Strings"

That may or may not mean a lot, I'm sure, but it's the root of your problems, and Flash Player has nothing to do with it.

Microsoft "rewrote" the User-Agent Strings for the abomination they call their latest and greatest browser. User-Agent Strings are what websites use to identify the browser you're using and provide the proper content for it's browser engine, like ActiveX stuff, and Flash or HTML5 video. Thanks to the geniuses in Redmond, WA, the User-Agent Strings for IE11 (which has a Trident engine), ID it as either "Gecko" (Firefox) or "Webkit" (Chrome). Problem is: when the site the directs to the content for one of these two engines, the Trident engine in IE can't intepret it and the site then sees IE as an "unidentified" browser.

The problem with an unidentified browser is that the plug-ins in that browser aren't recognized either, so even though you're up to date, it says you need the latest Flash Player when you use IE11. YouTube... has converted to HTML5 video so if it doesn't detect Flash Player, it can display HTML5 (MP4) video which requires no plug-in to play. Facebook can't do that, because HTML5 doesn't apply to games... only video.

Microsoft has no plans to "fix" the mess they've created because they think it's a great idea to block you out of the websites you visit.

They recommend using "Compatibility View" and pretending that you're using an older verison of IE... Problem with that is that it's seen limited success, and you have to enable it for EVERY page that has problems... individually.

I'm not big on "pretending" so I recommend actually using another browser.

Firefox (from Mozilla)

Opera (from Opera)

Safari (from Apple)

Chrome (from Google)

ANY of those will work where IE11 won't, with the Flash Player Plug-in (For all other browsers), and Chrome doesn't even need that because it has its own Flash Player plugin built in.