Macromedia Flash broken

Somehow, I broke Flash, and I can't seem to fix it. I have uninstalled it, and it will not reinstall. I put the full version of Macromedia Flash on, and still can't view a .swf - all I get is a box with an "x" in the upper left corner. Noahdfear and I cleaned out the registry, still cannot get Flash Player to even offer to install. I went offline, uninstalled SP2 with Norton off, rebooted, reinstalled SP2, no change.

Some months ago, I broke it. I remember thinking at the time, "This will nuke it!" and sure enough, it did. I cannot remember what I did, though. I know I was irritated at the time, and figured i didn't need to see any more cutesy **** in my email, but now I have to use Dreamweaver, and I need my Flash back. Anybody have any ideas?

SD2, don't tell me to format and reinstall, because ya know I will, if I can't figure this out!

TIA,
Johanna

 

When I first started reading your post the format suggestion was the first thing to come to my mind too. But now that you've shot that suggestion down, look in your windows\inf folder for a file named swflash.inf, right click on it and choose install. You might be prompted for your XP CD.

 

I followed this advice (was mostly set like this anyway)

I Shut off IE's pop up blocker, Google's pop up blocker, Norton's Ad Blocker and AdSubtract Pro. I added the test flash site to my trusted zones for good measure.

Zander
I clicked on install for the inf and was prompted for the ocx, which I found in SP files i386. It clinked like it worked, I rebooted, and still, no flash. I looked for the original ocx on the XP cd and got stuck in a loop. Any more ideas? Please?

Johanna

 

Johanna--Both the Flash problems you describe and the Red X are signs of having ActiveX Disabled. Are you clicking the OK button when you manually set "Run ActiveX controls and plugins" in Custom Level?
However, here are some more ideas
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/answers.htm
Note the setting in Internet Options|Advanced tab to "Show animations ", and the suggestion to turn off the firewall.

 

FIXED by regedit

Jim,
That was the weird thing- all other active X worked fine. Opened IE up all the way, and disabled every possible "block" (I even gave flash.exe permission to access the net! ) Shockwave was working, as well as MMJB, Quicktime, and every other animation.
Then, this page, and at the bottom is a regedit. I looked at this before, but since the "compatibility flag" had a zero value, I didn't think it was the problem. I deleted it during this regedit, and VOILA! Flash works!!!
I even checked out the cursor thief! Whew! Now i can get on with trying to unravel the mysteries of Dreamweaver. Thank you guys (you, too, T!) for your assistance. Still cannot remember how I "broke" it, but I knew I was doing it when I did it. Guess if I do it again, it will come back to me!

Johanna

 

Johanna--Wonder if that "kill bit" could have been caused by SpywareBlaster. It has a Flash Killer function (toggle for Flash). And I think SpybotS&D has something similar.
Going back to my thought on designating to which OS advice in Most Common Problems applies, I believe that Win98 is still used on over 25% of all PC's.

 

and that number is shrinking every day. You can't even buy an OEM w/o XP!

I don't think I killed Flash with Spybot or SpywareBlaster, though I use them both (why, I am not sure, because they never find anything!) but I honestly can't remember. I saw that regedit earlier, in my quest to fix Flash, but because I had no string on the kill bit, I didn't think it applied to me. I was wrong. If anyone wants to test Shockwave or Flash, click here.

Johanna

 

Johanna--Thanks for Macromedia test site.
Those trying to use it should remember that ActiveX controls need to be permitted to run.