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Flash on Windows 8

A user has Windows 8 64 Bit and IE 10. Adobe flash is built in and should run automatically. It WORKS when the user runs IE 10 in the Windows 8 Modern UI. However, when she tries to load the same page in IE 10 desktop mode it tells her she needs to load Adobe. When she goes to the Adobe flash site it brings her here: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/flash-player-issues-windows-8.html where it first tells her she doesn't need to load Adobe Flash but when she runs the Test Flash it tells her it is not enabled or Active X filtering is on. Her Active X filtering is off, set to allow all websites and her flash is enabled in the add-on menu. I have followed all of the instructions on the troubleshooting page listed above including running the Windows update with no success. I can not duplicate it on another machine.

The only other thing I can think to do is update her to Windows 8.1 and IE11 but that would take a lot of time which I'm trying to avoid if possible. Apparently you can not update to IE 11 with Windows 8 without upgrading to Windows 8.1 first.

Again, flash works perfectly in Modern UI mode. It's only in the Desktop UI where the user has the issue.

Thank you

John

I had Windows 8 Desktop only and now have Windows 8.1 Desktop only and Flash works fine.

I do see that Windows 8 updates include an update for the Windows 8 Flash. Today is Patch Tuesday and the Flash update was there today.

Go to the Desktop, run Windows Updates and include all of them including Recommended. That should bring Flash up to date.

.... Thinkpads_User

Christopher Reed

Another trick that I've done, if updating doesn't work, is to download another browser, install Flash using the offline installer and then try using IE in Desktop mode to see if it recognizes the Flash installation intended for the other browser. I recommend FireFox.

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/889580

Above is the direct link for Flash Player 11.7, which is not the latest version but should work.

Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

McKnife

Hi.

Maybe that website does not recognize the built-in flash version and therefore redirects to adobe? Try youtube.com or some other known site like vimeo.com and see if you can reproduce it there. Should work on both of course.

Tarkisal

ASKER

Thank you everyone for responding. Unfortunately the Windows update route didn't work. I tried running the site in Chrome and that loads normally! I tried youtube as well and that also tells me I need to load Adobe flash in IE (Runs properly in Chrome.) Really weird - I'm starting to think it has something specific with IE 10 but I can't say what. I can have the user just use Chrome for this site if necessary, but I'd be really curious to find the underlying cause.

Thanks again

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John

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Christopher Reed

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Christopher Reed

Tarkisal,

Any luck with getting Flash to work in Internet Explorer? Have you decided to just use Google Chrome for now?

Thanks!
-Chris

Tarkisal

ASKER

Sadly all of the fixes suggested didn't work. I still can't seem to get it to work in Desktop mode. I have the user working with Chrome for now and that seems to work. I'm thinking installing the Windows 8.1 update will fix it but that will require some time that the user can't afford at present. So the Chrome work around will have to do. Thank you for your help!

John

@Tarkisal - Thanks for the update. Flash should work well, so as you think about upgrading to Windows 8.1 that it is a new operating system (and not a service pack), so the upgrade does not always work (it should work). So then prepare your user for the eventuality that they may have to do a clean install of Windows 8, followed by driver updates, Windows updates and then Windows 8.1 followed by application installs.

... Thinkpads_User