[bugjackblue]

Flash player just stopped working. Any sites which use flash for embedded video request that I download the player. I have done that, and verified that it is indeed installed (and it appears to be where it's supposed to be) but sites which require it for video still don't appear to see it and continue to request download.

I first noticed it when trying to retrieve my yahoo e-mail. Upgrading to the newer yahoo mail interface solved the problem. Now it's interfering with youtube and other video sites. I uninstalled the flash player, and the shockwave player, then reinstalled both. No dice. Tried this maybe a dozen times. I read the threads on this problem on a number of forums, and checked all my security, privacy, and java settings. Everything looks right. Ran malware checks (MBAM and SAS) and it checks out clean. Even tried reinstalling quicktime as one comment in some thread suggested this seemed to work in some mysterious way (well, it didn't work for me.)

Adobe is of course totally useless for direct customer support. I've been through their troubleshooting pages over and over and have tried everything they suggest to no avail.

I'm currently running IE7 with XP. It's my mom's computer; I'm visiting and using her rig, and really don't want to upset/change anything significant, so switching to another browser is really not an option. I've been avoiding updating to IE8 on this computer because it's been fine all along but that's probably the most radical I can get if I really really had to.

Any ideas?

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The only updates for IE8 are security fixes which you get via Windows Update, there is no actual 'later version' of it yet, just a preview version of IE9 which you certainly don't want yet till it's fully ready for public release.

I can only suggest you try the excellent "Firefox" which won't make any significant changes to your mom's PC at all, and is dead easy to uninstall should you want to get rid of it (which is unlikely). There's another major reason to switch to Firefox - it's safer to use than any version of Internet Explorer.
There's every chance that the Flash Player will work on Firefox because it runs the "plugin" version of Flash, whereas Internet Explorer uses the proprietary "ActiveX" version of Flash. That may just make all the difference.

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 19 November 2010 - 08:55 AM.

[phillipcorcoran]

The only updates for IE8 are security fixes which you get via Windows Update, there is no actual 'later version' of it yet, just a preview version of IE9 which you certainly don't want yet till it's fully ready for public release.

I can only suggest you try the excellent "Firefox" which won't make any significant changes to your mom's PC at all, and is dead easy to uninstall should you want to get rid of it (which is unlikely). There's another major reason to switch to Firefox - it's safer to use than any version of Internet Explorer.
There's every chance that the Flash Player will work on Firefox because it runs the "plugin" version of Flash, whereas Internet Explorer uses the proprietary "ActiveX" version of Flash. That may just make all the difference.

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 19 November 2010 - 08:55 AM.

[bugjackblue]

Excellent advice! You are so right about the firefox. Not only does the flash work without incident but every website, no matter how busy and loaded with pics, animations, etc. loads almost instantly. Mom's old rig is so slow and limited in RAM that the net absolutely crawled but the firefox changes all that. For example, one of her favorite sites is huffingtonpost but it would never really load properly; now, as fast as you can scroll down the content fills the screen. So she loves the new browser and I'm a hero. Wish it were always quite as easy as that...