Unable to install Beta v18 in Windows 8 due to Windows Update restrictions. How do I work around those? Changing the update approach does not seem to to help.

[2009KazMom]

Hi - We are trying to install the beta version (18) on a Windows 8 machine for one of our clients.  But, the Windows Update is not letting this happen.  We've changed the update approach to not have automatic updates.  But, that didn't solve the problem.  Any help is appreciated!!  I imagine this is a pretty easy fix, but unfortunately I'm not Windows savvy these days. 

Thanks!

[MrX1980]

Hi, if you try to install Flash Player for IE (Active-X) then you can only use the content debugger version.

[piyush2508]

Hi,

Uninstalling the Windows 8/8.1 ActiveX: please note the KB number in the installer filename after downloading the installer file. To uninstall the Flash Player, go to Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Installed Updates. Look for the entry with the KB number the same as in the installer file and uninstall that update.

Latest Update for Flash is KB3049608 on Win 8.x.

Once you have uninstalled Please try installing Beta From Page - Download Adobe Flash Player 18 Beta for Desktops - Adobe Labs , Please let us know if this helps.

Thanks,

Piyush

[jeromiec83223024 · Accepted solution]

Oh, that's not good advice.  Uninstalling the latest update to Flash won't remove Flash from the system, and it will leave you with a vulnerable, older version of Flash Player.  Installing the ActiveX player for Win7 is not going to upgrade the Flash Player component that's built into Internet Explorer, so the user will still be stuck with an outdated version and no beta version until they run windows update again.

We don't distribute a beta version for Internet Explorer on Windows 8 and higher at all because we don't own that distribution channel (this is the same reason that we don't have a Chrome beta), and the Win8 binaries are different than what we release for Windows 7.  There's effectively no way to do this at the moment. 

We're talking to Microsoft about providing a mechanism for distributing betas and extended support releases of Flash Player to Win8+ users, but those distribution vehicles would have to come directly from Microsoft and we're still just talking about it, so there's no solution in the immediate future.

If you want to evaluate beta builds on Win8+, you're basically looking at NPAPI on Firefox and/or PPAPI on Opera.