Software Firefox and Flash

[Joe]

I have a question about using Adobe Flash with the Firefox browser.

My computer has Internet Explorer, which I have to have selected as my "default" browser. Certain things I have to do have to have IE as the default browser. They do not work with Firefox or Opera.

Yet I use Firefox 99.9 percent of the time as my web browser.

Now, here's the problem. While I keep up with the updates to Adobe Flash, when I install these updates they seem to be updating Internet Explorer only. If I am running Firefox and need to use Flash, I get a "blocking" message--which I can override. But if I override it, part of the message I get a message about my "obsolete" version of Flash (or words to that effect). Is there something I'm supposed to be doing to get Firefox to use the latest version of Flash that I have downloaded? I feel like I'm missing something.

 

[Second Summer]

I'm not 100% sure how this works on MS Windows, but yes, it's quite likely that IE and FF are using different plugins/libraries for Adobe Flash. Different browsers use different Flash plugins on Linux, and I think Adobe has stopped making new versions of Flash for Linux.

Are you using the most recent version of FF?

Also, FF has its own system for plugins and extensions. If you enter "about:plugins" (without the quotes) in the address bar, you'll get there. See if you can find Adobe Flash anywhere there, and see if it can be updated.

 

[Second Summer]

Turns out I was wrong about a lot of what I said above! You can't manage / upgrade your add-ons / plugins from "about:plugins", you have to go Tools -> Add-ons in the menues. And I've just upgraded my Adobe Flash plugin for Linux (I had to go to Adobe's site) from version 11 to 24.

 

[Moll Flanders]

This has been happening to me over the last couple of days. I will have to try and fix it.

 

[Joe]

Thanks for your input, IS. I am going to need more time to digest it and try some of these things out.

One of the ideas that popped into my head is that maybe when I get a message about a new "update" to Adobe Flash, I should go into Control Panel and temporarily change my default browser from IE to FF, then download and install the update, then go back into Control Panel and change the default back to IE. Sounds kind of crazy and very Rube Goldberg, but if it works then that's all I really need.

I keep hearing about the demise of Flash, but it seems that a lot of sites still require it. HTML5 has not yet triumphed totally.

 

[Joe]

I had some time to play around with this today, and learned a fair amount.

I'm not 100% sure how this works on MS Windows, but yes, it's quite likely that IE and FF are using different plugins/libraries for Adobe Flash. Different browsers use different Flash plugins on Linux, and I think Adobe has stopped making new versions of Flash for Linux.

You were right. I downloaded the installation files for IE and for Firefox. The IE file is called flashplayer24au_ha_install.exe.
The Firefox file is called flashplayer24_xa_install.exe. (If you download both to the same directory, the first file you downloaded will be automatically deleted during the installation process of the second file.)

I got the notice from Adobe today that an update was available, and did I want to download it? Before clicking on the "Download" button, I went into Control Panel and into the Defaults control and changed the default from IE to Firefox.
However, when I clicked on the "Download" button in the notice, it downloaded the IE version.

I had to go into Control Panel again, and found the Flash Player control app. I double-checked that Internet Options showed Firefox as my default browser, then clicked on the "Update" tab. This sent me to the correct webpages, and allowed me to download the Firefox file version and install it.

After finishing this post, I will have to go back into Control Panel and change my default browser back to IE.

Seems like a lot of rigamarole, but I guess I have to do it if I want to keep Flash and be able to use it as safely as possible.