Sorry about the title, but I couldn't think of a better one, and excuse the length of the post but it isn't an easy thing to explain clearly, which I'm hoping I have done. It might need a couple of reads.
Following on from craigs thread about content in web pages, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to compare which Shockwave and Flash Player Plugins different people have installed in whatever locations, and maybe make some sense of how these files are installed and used.
These are all the relevant Adobe and Macromedia Flash and Shockwave Player installations I've found on my PC.
C:\Windows\System 32: Contains two relevant folders - Adobe and Macromedia.
1: Adobe. Contains two sub folders - Director and Shockwave11.
Director sub folder contains:-
Shockwave for Director Netscape Plugin, Version 11.0.0.465. (np32dsw.dll)
Shockwave ActiveX Control, Version 11.0.0.465. (SwDir.dll)
Shockwave11 sub folder contains:-
Shockwave for Director Netscape Plugin, Version 11.0.0.465. (Plugin.dll)
Shockwave ActiveX Control, Version 11.0.0.465. (Control.dll)
2: Macromedia. Contains one sub folder - Flash.
Flash sub folder contains:
Adobe Flash Player ActiveX, Version 9.0.124.0. (Flash9f.ocx)
Shockwave Flash Player, Version 9.0.124.0. (NPSWF32.dll)
Macromedia Flash Player, Version 6.0.79.0. (flash.ocx)
Adobe Flash Player Helper, Version 9.0.124.0. (FlashUtil9f.exe)
Adobe Flash Player Helper, Version 9.0.124.0. (NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe)
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Plugins. Folder contains:-
Shockwave for Director Netscape Plugin Version 11.0.0.465. (np32dsw.dll)
To try to answer craigs questions from all this, and satisfy my own curiosity, the three items which appear in both mine and craigs Add\Remove Programs list are:-
"Adobe Flash Player ActiveX Version 9.0.124.0" and "Adobe Shockwave Flash Player Version 9.0.124.0" from the System32\Macromedia folder.
"Adobe Shockwave Player 11" from the System32\Adobe folder.
I actually updated my Shockwave 11 player from one download link on the 6th August '08, and I now find that all the "Shockwave" files in both of the System32\Adobe sub folders, and the "Shockwave" file in the Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Plugin folder, have exactly the same creation date and time, the 6th August '08, at 20:17.
I was pretty surprised to learn that 5 "Shockwave" files in 3 different folders were downloaded and installed at the same time. As far as I was aware, I was simply updating one file, my Shockwave Player 11, from one download link.
This now makes sense of the one "Shockwave Player 11" entry in the Add\Remove Programs list. One entry because the five separate "Shockwave" files needed for playing different content in different browsers, were part of one download.
All the "Flash" files in the System32\Macromedia\Flash folder, have similar install dates in August, but were all created at different times for different browsers.
When I first explored and listed the files in the C:\Windows\system32\Adobe\Director and Shockwave sub folders, I first assumed that for some unknown reason the two files in each of the sub folders were duplicates, and maybe unnecessary, but although they carry the same "properties" name, you can see from the bracketed names in the list, that they are all different dll's, I assume needed for playing different content.
The only duplicated file out of all of them, is the "Shockwave for Director Netscape Plugin Version 11.0.0.465 (np32dsw.dll)", found both in the System32\Adobe\Director sub folder, and in the Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\Plugins folder.
That's about it: I'm not entirely sure as to whether this will clarify anything for anyone, but the exercise has clarified some things for me.
For one thing, although my post in craigs thread pointed out the different Shockwave downloads available for different browsers, it's now plain to see that the "Shockwave iExplorer ActiveX" browser plugins, and the "Shockwave Netscape" browser plugins, are downloaded and installed at the same time, and therefore have only one entry in Add\Remove.
The iExplorer and the Netscape "Macromedia Flash Player" plugins, located in the "Macromedia\Flash" sub folder, are all separate downloads, for different browsers, and I couldn't find any duplicated outside of System32.
So, as far as I can see, on my PC at least, all the browsers, either directly or indirectly, access the Flash and Shockwave player plugins situated in C:\Windows\System32.
All except Firefox, (my FF at least), which has it's own copy of "Shockwave for Director Netscape Plugin Version 11.0.0.465 (np32dsw.dll)", identical to the one found in the System32\Adobe\Director folder. Why? I have no idea.
For Opera users, the Netscape installations usually include Opera compatibility.
This is the setup on my PC, and I now have a pretty good understanding of how these plugins are installed and used. Which is more than I had before I started this yesterday. It would be interesting to see how other installations compare with mine.
If you find this difficult to follow, apologies, but this is the shortened version.