How to play SWF files

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Now that Adobe Flash is defunct, how does one play SWF files?

Chuck Billow

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I haven’t tried it, but Ruffle is a modern open source replacement.

https://ruffle.rs/

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The free VLC will play FLV(SWF) video.

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You can also use Adobe’s Standalone Flash Player 32.0 r101 released back in July 2010.

While adobe removed the direct download links for it back on Jul 2021, it’s still available from the Internet Archives via the following link.

https://archive.org/download/standalone_flash_player/Flash%20Player%2032.0%20r101%20%5BWin%5D%20%5BStand%20Alone%5D.exe

And, unlike VLC and other alternatives, it can playing both .flv and .swf files (I still use it to occasionally play the .swf games I downloaded from the web after they killed the browser extensions.)

When run displays the following screen.

Note: it’s not possible to integrate it into any browsers, but it is possible to make it the “default” program to open .flv and .swf files using the Choose another app option using “right-click, Open with” in windows explorer.

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n0ads wrote:

Adobe’s Flash Player

Adobe’s Flash Player has always been a nightmare security hazard.

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The link is not to the normal Adobe Flash Player.

It’s a special “standalone” version they created when they discontinued their regular “security prone” Flash Player program so users could still access/play their various Flash files.

It doesn’t have the ability to connect to the internet and can’t be updated (i.e. you can “only” use it access/play locally stored files.)

2 users thanked author for this post.

Deo, Alex5723

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OK, I get Ruffle to play SWF files fine.  What I learned in the process however is that SOMETHHING I am running causes the “select an application” window to freeze — every time.  The only way I could get it done was/is to turn off ALL startup items.  Once the association was made, I could turn all back on.

I’m not running anything I wasn’t pre-Win-11, but then…

Well, The swf player works so that WAS the point.  Thanks to all.

 

Chuck Billow

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steeviebops, Alex5723

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n0ads wrote:

It’s a special “standalone” version they created when they discontinued their regular “security prone” Flash Player

I don’t trust Adobe Flash Players as did Apple from the start.

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‘s OK, Ruffle seems to be working just fine.

Chuck Billow

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