Adobe Flash Player 10 - repeated installations

I have Win 7 (Starter) on a new Acer Aspire One 532. My main (and only) login id is for me which also has admin. privileges.

However I do have to repeatedly install Flash Player 10 in order to view clips on YouTube, BBC and my own web site.

Once installed - via the Adobe Download Manager - all clips play OK. If I close the lid and the netbook hibernates, and then when I open it up again, all is well.

However if there is a Windows update, or if I do a restart / reboot, Flash Player gets uninstalled, or maybe Win 7 just forgets that it has been installed. Then I have to go through the whole download process to re-reinstall it until the next time.

This is the only application that exhibits this behaviour. But I do use it a lot. All other apps. once installed seem to remain available for use without fail.

So why is Flash Player such a problem, and what can I do to 'fix' its installation once and for all?

Thank you - Chris Brady.

 

Can't say I've heard of this happening before, but I do have some thoughts.

Which antivirus are you using? It may be blocking some registry changes / IE addons from being saved permanently. You should be able to completely disable it's real=time protection, at least temporarily to see if the changes are saved upon reboot. However once the antivirus system is restarted it may also revert the change.

Have you tried using Firefox instead of IE?

 

I have now removed McAfee and have a stable IE8 (after also running the special rereg.cmd file from MS to re-register the IE8 dlls). Getting rid of McAfee certainly cured a number of other problems as detailed in other threads.

BTW I replaced McAfee with MS Security Essentials.

So I have just re-installed Flash Player 10 (for the umpteenth tme). Previously the installation never survived a reboot / restart - so I'll try that next.

Meanwhile I only have one account on the Acer - mine under my name. This id has Administrator privileges but I have heard that this is not the same thing as actually being the Administrator. So how do I login as Administrator. Then I can use that id to install applications like Flash player 10 more reliably - without 'losing' the app. every time I reboot / restart?

Ah yes - and Firefox and Safari and Chrome and Opera all retain their installations of Flash Player 10 after a reboot. It is only IE8 that requires(ed) the re-installation of this app. all of the time.

Many thanks.

 

Just rebooted the Acer and - Flash Player 10 got uninstalled from IE8 - YET AGAIN. However it remained OK for Foxfire and Opera and Safari and Chrome. So even with the removal of all things McAfee the damned thing STILL refuses to install Flash Player permanently. This is really pi$$ing me off, and I am wondering if other apps. are also like this? I have never had so many problems with a computer than I've had with the Acer 532. I bought it to use when out travelling. Instead I've had nothing but irritations with it - largely caused by McAfee - and other pre-installed junks apps. But my Toshiba Qosmio has been faultless for years - but then it is running XP not Win 7. I wonder if removing Win 7 and installing XP would cure the Acer?

 

SOLVED - Re: Adobe Flash Player 10 - repeated installations

I think that I can now categorically state that the cause of the problem of repeated installs of FP 10 with IE8 running on Windows 7 is Microsoft's 'User Account Control.' It was pre-installed on my Acer netbook at one 'click' below the highest level.

Even if FP 10 was downloaded and installed for IE8 as an Add-on rebooting or restarting Win 7 caused FP 10 to appear to get uninstalled, although it was actually just removed from IE8's Add-on list. Anything requiring FP 10 such as YouTube, BBC Live News or custom SWP files would not then play when browsed by IE8. However the FP 10 files were still extant and FP 10 was still installed - its just that it got removed as an Add-on from IE8 by the UAC. If IE8 was opened and FP 10 was left like this (installed on the PC but removed as an Add-on), maybe whilst another browser was being used, it appears that UAC would suddenly 'wake up' and ask if FP 10 should be installed. Responding with a 'yes' it would be quickly be 'installed' to IE8 but actually this only amounted to it being relinked as an Add-on once again.

The 'solution' is to lower the UAC level to the lowest level - that is to turn it off - but with the attendant risks. Rebooting / restarting afterwards then has no effect on FP 10 and this remains a valid Add-on for IE8, i.e. it does not appear to get 'uninstalled.'

The above solution also cures the need for repeated installations of mobile broadband dongle s/w. Another irritation.

With regards to UAC on a one-user Acer netbook I think that it is relatively safe to lower the level or even to close it with the assumption that the sole user - presumably the owner - knows what he/she is doing with regards to downloading and installing apps.

Chris J Brady

P.S. This issue has also been posted onto the Social Answers Forums at Microsoft.com - however NO-ONE from MS or an MS MVP was knowledgeable enough or could be bothered to research out the cause and respond to concerns.

 

UAC is nothing more than a hangover from Vista. Even in Win7 it's there, but not as, well... "functional" as it was in Vista. They tried hard to make it less "invasive". However among people who actually use their computers like you and I, the general consensus is to disable UAC completely. When setting up installs for my machines i actually use v-Lite to completely remove UAC from my installation media altogether. It's just a nuisance.