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Flash Player Problems With Internet Explorer
It's the oldest joke in the proverbial book: when a Microsoft product breaks it really breaks. Macromedia Flash isn't made by Microsoft, but it does operate within Internet Explorer which, as you may or may not know, is pretty much the entire foundation that most people base their internet browsing experience on.
Naturally, Macromedia Flash tends to break sometimes. The instances that Flash breaks are rare and far between, but they can be crippling. They range in severity from a minor inconvenience (Internet Explorer not displaying the Flash animation) to an absolute catastrophe (Flash causing your computer to crash, pack a bag, and leave the country). Unfortunately, it can be hard to discern which is which.
Common Flash Player Problems with Internet Explorer
When something happens (and you can be certain that it will happen) it can be nearly impossible to know the full extent of what's happening. Try to make a note of what you were doing when the error occurred, as well as the programs that were open and websites that you were visiting.
The most common and effective fix for Flash problems with Internet Explorer is to completely remove and then reinstall Macromedia Flash. Follow the steps below:
- Uninstall Flash via the Adobe uninstall tool - Found here (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html), this tool is the only way to completely remove Macromedia Flash from your system. Choose the version that is appropriate for your operating system, download, and then run the program.
Once the program has run it will have completely removed Flash from your computer. You can verify this by trying to visit any Flash-enabled website.
- Reinstall Flash - Once Flash has been completely uninstalled, reinstall Flash by visiting the Adobe Flash website (http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/). Be sure to download the latest version (as of this writing it was version 10).
The most common Flash problems in Internet Explorer are:
- Developer errors - These errors are vast and numerous in both quantity and predictability. Unfortunately, there is also little that a visitor to a website can do if they experience one of these errors. Not only that, but many visitors confuse a developer error for a symptom a greater problem with their computer- not good.
Developer errors are pretty easy to spot to a relatively trained eye. They will display an error code, such as Error #2001, and will refer to a parameter or problem that you likely will never have heard of (invalid IO definition, for example).
Aside from updating your version of Flash there is little (nothing) that you can do, as a developer error is the result of the Flash programmer leaving faulty or incorrect code in the Flash applet.
- Internet Explorer does not render Flash animations - In this situation Internet Explorer will either not render the Flash animation at all (you will see nothing where the Flash animation should have been), or it will display a static box (a colored box where the animation should have been).
It is important to note that many Flash animations take a while to load, and often they do not have a progress bar to indicate how far the loading has progressed. Many people confuse a blank or static animation as Internet Explorer not rendering the Flash object.
In this situation it is best to uninstall and reinstall the latest version of Flash. If Internet Explorer still will not render Flash objects, the next step is to ensure that you have the latest version of Internet Explorer and that it is up to date with all updates downloaded and installed.
If you have updated both your version of Flash and Internet Explorer and Flash objects still will not render you may have spyware/malware causing problems on your computer. Run a full system scan and deal with any infections found.
- Flash animations fail to load - If Flash animations are not loading (YouTube won't load videos, for example), it may be the result of incorrect configuration settings on your computer and/or firewall.
Assuming that you have already uninstalled and then reinstalled the latest version of Flash, you should also enable applets in your Internet Security Settings (Tools --> Internet Options --> Security).