Getting my computer to recognize I have Flash Player

[Skeptic Guy]

Peoples,

I need some IT support. My computer will no longer let me play video clips on sites such as You Tube and Google Video. When I click on the thumbnail of the video, it tells me that I need to download Flash Player. However, I have downloaded Flash and when I did it told me it was successful, but the computer does not recognize it.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[EHLO]

Assuming IE - just check that under Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, you have "Play animations" enabled.

Actually - it may be "Enable 3rd Party plugins" - something like that...

[Skeptic Guy]

Assuming IE - just check that under Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, you have "Play animations" enabled.

Actually - it may be "Enable 3rd Party plugins" - something like that...

I have both of the following flagged already:

Enable third-party browser extensions

Play animations in webpages

Someone at work suggested that my firewall was blocking something but I don't know what it could be.

[PeekaBoo]

If you are using FF and have the NoScript addon installed, make sure you are allowing YouTube &/or Google Video???

[Skeptic Guy]

I'm using IE v. 7


Does that have the same thing.

Sorry, I should have indicated what browser I'm using.

[EHLO]

Another guess... try under Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs

You should have an entry for Macromedia (or Adobe) Flash Player Plugin. There should be a "repair" option, either directly available or under the link for support information.

This should repair any broken associations etc. May need a re-start to take effect.

[Skeptic Guy]

Another guess... try under Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs

You should have an entry for Macromedia (or Adobe) Flash Player Plugin. There should be a "repair" option, either directly available or under the link for support information.

This should repair any broken associations etc. May need a re-start to take effect.

Ok, maybe this is the problem?

I have two entries in Add or Remove Programs under Adobe:

Adobe Flash Player 9 ActiveX
Adobe Flash Player ActiveX

And another entry under Macromedia:

Macromedia Flash Player

Only the Macromedia entry has a repair option for me and when I click on it, it is looking for a CD to find the necessary files.

Do I need all these versions of Flash Player and could they be conflicting?

[EHLO]

AFAIK you only need the latest Active X plugin for your browser.

The other "Macromedia Flash player" is for running stand alone swf files.

If you're happy to try it I'd remove all of them, re-boot, then go to the Adobe website and download/install the latest one again.

[Skeptic Guy]

AFAIK you only need the latest Active X plugin for your browser.

The other "Macromedia Flash player" is for running stand alone swf files.

If you're happy to try it I'd remove all of them, re-boot, then go to the Adobe website and download/install the latest one again.

Just to be sure, you suggest that I remove both Adobe entries and the Macromedia too? I understand that it's on my head, but I just want to be sure.

[EHLO]

Yep. Start with a clean slate.

[Zygar]

I had this problem when I first got IE7. I just uninstalled flash and installed it via IE7 by going to the flash install page. It solved the problem.