Adobe Flash Player v18 fails to register in IE11, what else to try?

[Terry Quinn]

I have been unable to get Flash 18 to install without it saying "Failed to Register" at end, and no player installed. 

Here is what I've tried:

Insured no IE turned on during insallation of Flash

Turned off "Run Active X controls" in IE

Ran the uninstall program to clean off Flash Player, then deleted recommended files with residual Flash files in them.

Any other ideas? 

I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

Why is this Adobe software so finicky to install?

Terry

[Carm01]

Why don't you try this page, and look at the bottom of the page for the actual offline installation files:

Installation problems | Flash Player | Windows

If you run into issues you can try the uninstaller here: https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html

You might need to download the files , re-boot, and uninstall and re-install as sometimes applications use flash and this will prevent the uninstall/install process

Best Regards

[Terry Quinn]

Carm01,

Thank you for your suggestions.

Regarding your steps described in #1 of your comment, I performed all the things on that page, including uninstalling the Flash Player and its remnants, including using the uninstaller and then removing the folders indicated.  All of those folders did have content in them, and I erased all of them.  I'm pretty sure I rebooted after that, but cannot be positive.  When I then proceeded to install, I made sure to turn off the IE before the installer got to the point where it stops asking for IE to be closed.  Nonetheless, I still got the error message from Adobe "failed to register" error.

As for the link to use an offline installer, the link in the page you copied for Flash Player for Internet - ActiveX is not valid.  Clicking on the link in the page view did nothing, so I typed in the URL from the dark area with the red box in your reply, and it gave a Page Not Displayed error.  I triple checked what I typed in for the URL, and it still gave the same error.

Can you provide me with the actual URL for the offline installer Flash Player for Internet - ActiveX?

Terry

[Carm01]

I posted a link in that post lol... Why are you clicking on the picture?

[Terry Quinn]

You posted a link for the installation instructions, and as I said previously, I had already applied all of those instructions yesterday, and that was not successful.

What I had not tried was the offline installer, with links showing in your screenprint of another site.  I thought I should try the offline installer, and OF COURSE THAT IS A PICTURE that cannot be clicked on.  However, it looks like there might be a live link at the source of the screenprint you dumped into this BBS.  So I typed in the source URL into a browser so that I could get to the live link for the offline installer.  THAT URL WAS THE ONE THAT HAS WORKED.

Now that you should correctly understand what I did and didn't do, would you please point out where you posted the link for the offline installer.  If you have not yet done that, could you please provide that link for the IE installation.

Thank you.

Terry

[Carm01]

The answers are in my OP reply to you.

[_maria_]

Hi,

'Failed to Register' errors usually means a permissions error on the file system or registry and a required component of Flash Player can't be registered due to this.  Using the standalone installer won't fix the issue and the same error will be returned.

I'd like to take a look at the FlashInstall.log file to confirm the exact error before proceeding with a possible solution.  The file is located in the following folder, depending on the type of operating system:

• 32 Bit Windows:
  • C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\FlashInstall.log
• 64 Bit Windows:
  • C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\FlashInstall.log
  • C:\Windows\syswow64\Macromed\Flash\FlashInstall.log

Please upload the file (both if on 64-bit OS) using the instructions How to share a document

Post the link to the uploaded files in your reply.

Thank you.

--

Maria

[Terry Quinn]

Maria,

Thanks for your assistance.

I am running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, and since the file names were the same for both locations, I prepended a "32" to the filename of the one that came from \system32, and a "64" to the one that came from "\sysWOW64"

Here are the links to those two files:

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/010d32e1-d5c4-44c9-ac56-da2a3a903a33

https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/eb1ed8cf-8344-4d9b-a420-7ff31b7823b5

Thanks again,

Terry

[_maria_]

Hi,

Thanks for posting the files.  The files do confirm a permissions issue on one of the files (access denied).  Please see the FAQ How do I fix Windows permission problems with Flash Player?

--

Maria

[Terry Quinn]

Maria,

Thanks for the suggestion.  I followed your steps, restarted the computer, and the Flash software loaded correctly.  I restarted the computer.  I went to Control Panel/Programs and Features, and there it was, "Adobe Flash Player 18 ActiveX."

At this point I was highly optimistic that the problem was behind me.

But then I decided to test it on a video on Facebook.  And the first one I tried failed, giving this message:

"Flash Player Upgrade Required

You must download and install the latest version of the Adobe Flash player to view this content."

And below that was a little green box with "Get Flash Player" in it.

I looked at a different, smaller screen video, and it played.  That one was coming from YouTube.

Then I went to a third video, and I got the same message above, "Flasy Player Upgrade Require . . . "

Because of some earlier changes to active X controls in IE following recommendations, I reset that to Medium Security defaults.  At this point it still does not play the video.  But I'll post this and exit out and restart Window and restart IE and see if it works.

Back in a minute or two.

[Terry Quinn]

Maria

I'm back.  Unfortunately resetting the Active X controls in IE to default, and restarting the computer didn't not fix the problem of playing Facebook videos. It still says I need to install the Flash player.  And Programs and Features still reports that Active X 18 is installed.

I'm stumped.  Any suggestions?

Terry

[_maria_]

Hi Terry,

YouTube uses HTML5 video by default so it makes sense that those would play.

Since you were able to successfully install, the original issue (failed to register) has been solved.  Now it's a detect/playback issue.

Please go to http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html and click the 'Check Now' button.  It should report back the version installed, browser in use, and OS version.

The following FAQs and tech note may also provide assistance:

• Enabling Flash Player in Internet Explorer‌
• ActiveX Filtering in Internet Explorer‌
• Video playback issues‌

The first 2 FAQs refer to IE9, but they apply to IE9 and above.

--

Maria

[Terry Quinn · Accepted solution]

Maria,

I did what you said with the Check Now button.  For the number 1 element.   It gave a big red X and reported

"Sorry, Flash Player is either not installed or not enabled.

Please got to Step 2"

The box shows

"Your Flash Version        Not installed." 

"Your browser name     Internet Explorer"   "

"Your Operating System (OS)      Windows (Windows 7).

Step 2 is to download the latest version of Flash.

I went back to Programs and Features, and it still shows Flash 18 installed.

I used your first link you added, and it showed that Flash was enabled.

I went to the second link, and found that Active X Filtering was turned on, and I turned it off.

I've checked several videos that I thought would give me trouble, but they were all playing.

Thanks for your persistence in helping me get this resolved.

Here are a couple of thoughts:

1. At least until Adobe gets a more robust installation process for Flash, it would be good if the information that you used to help me through the  problems (including the lack of permissions) could be made available in one location on an Adobe website.  When I was trying to find out why this problem occurred,  there were plenty of other incidences of "unable to register," along with many suggestions on how to fix it.  I did a lot of those things to try and solve the problem using advice from other users.  By consolidating what does work and what does not on an Adobe website, maybe with a guided diagnostic thread or flowchart, it would have helped a lot. Following all of these possible recommendations could have let to activating Active X filtering.

2.  When testing for the presence of Flash, the message returned needs to be more robust.  As I copied above, the check program said that Flash was not installed.  But we both know that it WAS installed.  So either the status checking software needs to check more possibilities and report them correctly, or at least itemize the possibilities correctly.  We know in this case that check reported the wrong conclusion when it said that Flash was not installed.

Thank you again for your help.

Terry

[_maria_]

Hi Terry,

Looks like ActiveX Filtering was the culprit.  While Flash Player was installed, ActiveX Filtering blocks it and for all intents and purposes makes it seem as if it's not installed, which is why the Check-Now feature indicated it wasn't installed.  Step 4 on the page has the link to Enable for Internet Explorer (the first link I posted) and the bottom of this page contains a link to ActiveX Filtering in Internet Explorer (the second link I posted).

Thank you for the feedback.

I realize it can be a bit difficult to find some of the information, but if everything is on one page it'll become very cluttered and confuse users as it would be easy to assume the troubleshooting steps would need to occur in a certain order.  By having a single topic on each page, with references to other related topics, it provides users with specific information on a specific issue instead of throwing all sorts of unrelated topics at them.

I thought the 'failed to register' error had a link to the related tech note (I posted the link to the FAQ as it contains a video, but there is a similar tech note, without the video).  I'll follow-up with the team who develops the online installer.

--

Maria

[Terry Quinn]

Hi Maria,

Your concern about clutter and confusion was the reason that I suggested guided diagnostics, where the user is guided to the right solution by answering questions, and then the software uses the answers to head down the right path.  The software can deal with a complex diagnosis problem, and keep the unneeded paths from confusing the user.

Something like that isn't needed for a simple utility.  But the installation of Active X and getting it running can be sidelined in so many ways, and probably different for each browser, that something more sophisticated is needed.  In effect, you served as my guide in diagnosing my problem, and that worked well.  We just need to program your expertise so that many people can benefit from it at the same time.  The pervasiveness of this type of problem with Adobe Flash installations on the Internet suggest that there is a big enough opportunity to come up with a guided solution that is always available.

Or as an alternative, Adobe could just make the Flash installation much more robust than it currently is, to prevent the problems in the first place.

Again, thanks for your help.

Terry