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Summary: Adobe Flash is a nearly ubiquitous tool for displaying video on the web. You must install if, of course, but often that's not enough.
How to I turn on Flash Player? When I go to the download site for Adobe the banner says that I have flash installed. Then I go to a website that I know has flash and it says "This site requires that you have flash player." I have already tried re-formatting to no help.
Wow. Reformatting sure seems like overkill for a problem like this. Reformatting's a pretty major step, and not something I'd recommend without investigating things deeply.
I'm not sure what might be the problem in your specific case, but I can tell you this: there's at least one excruciatingly simple reason that Flash might not show up on many web sites, even though you've installed it.
In a word: JavaScript.
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What most sites don't tell you is that yes, you need Flash installed, but you also need JavaScript enabled. This might not be true for all sites, but it's certainly true for the vast majority using Flash that I visit.
In my case, I run the FireFox extension "NoScript" which disables Javascript on all sites, except for those that I explicitly allow. So each time I visit a new site that uses Flash, I get the message "You must install Flash", when in fact all I need to do is tell NoScript to enable Javascript. Doing that the page and Flash video work just fine.
In most cases, Javascript is enabled by default. But just in case, let's review how you turn on Javascript in IE7 and in FireFox.
Enabling Javascript in IE7
On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click on the Security tab. This dialog should result:
Click on Custom Level.... In the resulting dialog scroll down until you see Active Scripting:
Make sure that Active Scripting is set to Enable.
Enabling Javascript in FireFox
Click on the Tools menu, and then the Options menu item. Click on the Content tab and you should see something similar to this:
Make sure that Enable Javascript is checked.
Risks?
In my opinion, Javascript is not risky, unless you're regularly visiting risky or questionable sites, so I typically recommend people go ahead and run with it enabled. However, we've even recently seen a theoretical scary vulnerability in most routers that could be exploited via some malicious Javascript, so I might consider rethinking that stand.
As I mentioned above, I recently started using NoScript, an extension for the FireFox browser which makes managing Javascript on a per-site basis a snap. Javascript is disabled on all sites except those you specifically allow. When you visit a site, you can quickly and easily add it to the allow list or return it to the block list with just a couple of clicks.
You can do roughly the same in Internet Explorer by adding sites to the "Trusted Sites" list, but the advantage of NoScript is simply ease of use. Literally a couple of clicks to add or remove a site from block list, and you're on your way.
Related:
Ask Leo! - What is Javascript and why do i need it?
Ask Leo! - Is Javascript dangerous?
Article C2960 - March 12, 2007
This page: http://ask-leo.com/why_wont_flash_work_even_though_its_installed.html
Posted by: Cat Moves at July 17, 2008 11:08 AMdoes not fit on my screen resolution. Can you code it so that it fit any size I choose to have on my monitor? Thank you.
For Mr. Showalter and others who've seen this without resolve, I happened upon yet another SIMPLE solution. Adobe recommends that you uninstall older versions of Flash Player, a tact I had not taken in previous upgrades. But, after the most recent upgrade wouldn't kick in, an uninstall and reinstall of the current version did the trick.
Posted by: matt at August 7, 2008 2:11 PMI did that but it still does not work.
Posted by: wes at September 7, 2008 12:00 PMThanks for pointing out it was about the Noscript add-on I installed with firefox3. That was exactly what i was looking for, now flash works again.
Posted by: Bas at November 5, 2008 1:26 PMyo, I had an earlyer version, it worked then it stoped and I was informed I need version 9 or greater, so went to ze site and clicked "agree and install" and nothing happend, my bar did not respond(lol) nothing. I'm running vista but if I changed the version I was after to win98 I could download, yet this achieved nada. I tried the uninstall aproach, but still no respons at the download site and now I've tried this and yet again failure.. I am currently waiting for the download from the link and its at 79% so you're gonna have to wait a minute...92% man I hate dial up, dam it that link has expired and it takes you to this driver cure thing that does the ol "I'll scan ya computer, tell ya whats wrong and asked to be registerd before I fix it. I have got no idea, and from what I've it seems there are a few different problems mainly with windows.
Posted by: tim at January 19, 2009 3:07 PMI'm back, and kinda succesfull, I went back to the site and downloaded version 9 http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html saving to the desktop,closed all my browsers then uninstalled flash ver? using the flash uninstaller, I cant remember where i got that so use google or something, opend C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash and dragged the remaining content (install.txt) to the desktop !I did not delete it! then I ran flash player_9_ax_debug (flash ver9) and kept the folder open and watched it install 4 files. I tested it, works fine Highly recomended.
Posted by: tim at January 19, 2009 3:40 PMin regard to my last comment... you can download the uninstaller here cya.
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=1
Posted by: tim at January 19, 2009 3:50 PMGreetings,
Posted by: Lak Kader at April 12, 2009 6:17 PMI re-installed AFP and made sure JS was enabled.
But I still get a message when I visit a flash site saying I need to enable JS?
Please advise.
Thank you Tim. I followwed the steps but when I get to
C:\WINDOWS\system32\, I do not have Macromed\Flash... And I looked everywhere!
So I am stucked right now...
Tks and any help would be greatly appreciated : )
I'm back, and kinda succesfull, I went back to the site and downloaded version 9 http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html saving to the desktop,closed all my browsers then uninstalled flash ver? using the flash uninstaller, I cant remember where i got that so use google or something, opend C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash and dragged the remaining content (install.txt) to the desktop !I did not delete it! then I ran flash player_9_ax_debug (flash ver9) and kept the folder open and watched it install 4 files. I tested it, works fine Highly recomended.
Posted by: tim at January 19, 2009 3:40 PM
in regard to my last comment... you can download the uninstaller here cya.
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=1
Posted by: Isabella at May 1, 2009 8:22 PMI have been having this prob. for over 2 months too. I was able to fix it by going to IE/tools/manage add-ons, enable shockwave. Couldn't believe that fixed it. But first, I uninstalled the program using revouninstall [broken link removed] and rebooted. But u may not have to do all that, just try enabling shockwave first.
Posted by: frustrated at May 13, 2009 10:04 PM