Flash Questions

[Anthony A]

I am a little confused about Flash Player. I never really paid much attention to detail when it came to Flash but visiting a financial news site yesterday I got a prompt to upgrade to the newset version so I could watch a video with Opera 8.54. Before I did the update I went to Adobe's site to read up on it and did a search on this forum and some others and it's left me a little confused.

 

1) Does Flash install in each browser or does it install some where on your system and the browsers detect it there?. I ask because when I went to the Adobe site there is a section that tests to see if you have Flash and what version you have. Well Firefox, Opera?8.54,?Opera?9.02,??and?IE7?all?had?different?versions.?When?I?went back to the financial news site it worked on all my browsers except Opera 8.54 which had the oldest version of Flash out of all the browsers. The update prompt appeared again and I updated.?Now?all?my?versions?of?Opera?and?Firefox?have?the?same?version?of Flash. Why?

 

2) It seems Opera and Firefox require one install of Flash and IE requires it's own install, an active X one. Before I updated I only seen the active X version in Add/Remove programs. Since updating the Firefox/Opera?version?of?Flash?I?have?two?Flash?entries?in?Add/Remove?programs.?Why?

 

3) I did not uninstall the older versions with the Flash uninstaller that is available from Adobe. I just followed the update prompt and it worked well. Why is it recommended to uninstall than?

 

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[Anthony A]

Well? Can some one explain this to me?

[Andavari]

You're correct IE requires an ActiveX version which is more-or-less a system file because even the Windows installation will install it, albeit a now rather outdated version. Firefox, Mozilla Sunbird, Mozilla Firefox, etc., all require the one for alternate browsers (Non-IE).

 

I always uninstall the IE ActiveX one before installing a new version, I remember some time ago when I didn't do that and the folder it's installed in "Windows\System32\Macromed" became cluttered. However with Firefox I don't uninstall the old version because it's just going to overwrite the files with the new version.

[DennisD]

Andavari pretty much summed it up Anthony, but if its any help to you, I have Adobe Flash Player 9 ActiveX, which I assume is the IE version.

 

I also have Adobe Flash Plugin. I assume for Firefox etc., and I also have Adobe Shockwave Player.

 

You can find an explanation here on the difference between Flash Player and Shockwave Player.

[Anthony A]

I know the IE version is installed in the Windows folder I checked. Where is the Firefox/ Opera version installed to?

 

When I checked my Flash on the site before I updated I checked with 4 different browsers,two different versions of Opera, and all 4 browsers had different versions of Flash. So I am thinking it's installed in the browser. But when I updated I used Opera 8.54 and the update prompt from a site that said I needed to update Flash to view the videos there. When I updated Opera both versions of Opera and Firefox had their versions of Flash updated to the newest version just from the one update. So if flash is installed in each browser how did all my browsers update their Flash when I only updated the one version of Opera?

[DennisD]

My Flash and Shockwave players are both resident in C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed.

 

So one would assume that none of them are actual browser plugins.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention, was looking at the Opera:config yesterday, and in I think "User Prefs" there is a plugin path that you can configure.

[Andavari]

To find out where it's installed in Firefox type this into the address field:

about:plugins

 

To find out in Opera you'd type in one of the following (sorry I haven't used Opera in months so I don't know exactly which one it is):

about:plugins

about:config

[Anthony A]

Dennis and Andavari,

 

I checked the about:plugins feature in both Opera and Firefox. Opera gives you the actual path and it's in the plugin folder in the Opera installation. So it seems it is installed directly into the browser. IE seems not to be in the browser but in the Windows folder. My confusion is if the Opera/Firefox version of Flash is in the actual browser how did two versions of Opera and one version of Firefox all get updated by one Flash update that I did with Opera 8.54? Prior to the update the two versions of Opera and Firefox all?had different versions of Flash. I don't get it.

 

Dennis, I also have Flash Player 9 Active X in Add/remove programs and since I updated Flash I also have Adobe Flash Plugin which wasn't present in Add/remove programs before the update but Flash worked fine.

[DennisD]

I'm no expert on this Anthony, and I don't have Opera installed to check it, but the only plugins in the Mozilla Firefox "program folder > plugins" are Quick Time plugins.

 

And if you look in "Firefox > Tools > Options > Content > Manage > Download Actions", you'll find that Firefox is configured to use Shockwave Flash, which resides in C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed.

 

I thought Opera was configured in a similar way for playing Flash content, as it would make sense that they would both update at the same time as they use the same Flash Player.

 

Any Flash Player experts out there to confirm this one way or the other?

[Anthony A]

I definitely have a Flash Plugin in my Firefox when I look at about:plugins. Doesn't give a path though to where I can find it. Opera definitely has Flash plugin as well listed in opera:plugins and it gives a path to the plugin folder located in the Opera installation folder.

 

I don't get much help from the Flash site about this. Lots of how to install and uninstall stuff though.

[Andavari]

I definitely have a Flash Plugin in my Firefox when I look at about:plugins. Doesn't give a path though to where I can find it.

Should be located at:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins

 

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When you install the non-IE version it auto-detects what non-IE browsers you have installed such as Opera and Firefox, etc., and will install the plugin into all of them simultaneously (or at least it should).

[Anthony A]

Should be located at:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins

 

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When you install the non-IE version it auto-detects what non-IE browsers you have installed such as Opera and Firefox, etc., and will install the plugin into all of them simultaneously (or at least it should).

 

OK, it's starting to make sense a little. The IE version of Flash installs in the Windows folder and shows up in Add/remove programs as Flash Player Active X.

 

Non IE versions install in the actual browser (Opera/Firefox) in the plugin folders. When updating the non IE Flash it detects all non IE browsers and updates them all. The newest non IE Flash also appears in Add/Remove Programs now (didn't before) as Adobe Flash Plugin.

 

I still don't know how 2 versions of Opera and 1 of Firefox had 3 different versions of non IE Flash before I updated. Only thing I can think of is that Opera and Firefox come preinstalled with Flash so 3 different browsers would have 3 different versions depending on how old the browser is. Since Opera 8.54 is much Older than Opera 9 or Firefox 2 that would explain it's much older version of Flash. Of course updating it's Flash updated all the browsers Flash.

[Andavari]

I think Opera comes with Flash installed, however to my knowledge Firefox doesn't and will trigger a small space at the top of the browser when visiting a Flash enabled website. The Firefox missing Flash plugin detection seems to always get the most recent version downloaded and installed.

[Anthony A]

I think Opera comes with Flash installed, however to my knowledge Firefox doesn't and will trigger a small space at the top of the browser when visiting a Flash enabled website. The Firefox missing Flash plugin detection seems to always get the most recent version downloaded and installed.

 

Lets say you installed Firefox today. No Flash comes installed so you have to install it and you get the newest version of Flash. Than tomorrow you decide to install Opera 8.54 and it comes preinstalled with Flash. That would explain two different versions of Flash. Once you update one of the browsers Flash they both would update to the newest Flash. That would Explain what happened to me than.

 

Did you notice that the newest version of Flash for non IE browsers has an entry now in Add/Remove programs and before it didn't?

[Andavari]

Did you notice that the newest version of Flash for non IE browsers has an entry now in Add/Remove programs and before it didn't?

Yeah I noticed it however I wonder if it's able to clean Firefox's prefs.js file and/or Opera's .ini file with the settings. In any event having an uninstaller for it doesn't perfectly make sense to me since it's one of those most needed browser plugins.