Macromedia Flash (IE 6)

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Sometimes, when connecting to a web page, there is a looooong delay before I can see the page.
I expect that this is due to the copying of Macromedia Flash into the temproary directory and then asking me if I wish to install Macromedia Flash.

I will not install Macromedia Flash.
Is there any way that I can prevent the downloading of that file, and subsequent request to install Macromedia Flash.

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If you disable ActiveX, the browser will tell the server not to bother sending you the file. Problem is, often the “skip animation” link is inside the animation itself. (Web designers who do that need a good dope slap.)

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My concern with disabling ActiveX is whether that will prevent me from using sites such as banks and online vendors (for ordering).

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It depends on the site. However, I am not sure that many banking or on-line vendors use ActiveX for ordering. I would suspect that Scripting is more likely involved than ActiveX. The only way to know is to give it a try. You can always add sites that you wish to order from to your Trusted sites zone.

Additionally, for ActiveX you can separately choose to RUN programs and controls that you already have, or to DOWNLOAD new controls. If you want, you can disable downloading new controls, but enable running the ones you already have. So, if you don’t have Flash, it cannot run.

Lastly, you can get even more sophisticated:

1) Set the Kill Bit for the Flash ActiveX control so it cannot be called upon by IE.
2) Install Flash, but rename the control (swflash.ocx) so it cannot be used.
3) Prevent your computer from ever reaching Macromedia.com so that Flash cannot be downloaded.

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I guess I need to find documentation for all this stuff.
I pay little attention to IE.

I will never voluntarily add any site to the list of Trusted sites, I don’t even trust me, myself, and I.

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The image above demonstrates exactly how to set these up so that no new ActiveX Controls are downloaded — but you can still run the ones you have if and only if you answer YES to the Prompt.
___________________

I add sites to my Trusted zone all the time.

IMHO – If you don’t Trust a site enough to add it to your Trusted zone, then you probably should not be doing business with them…

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I don’t see any image.

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Howard, it’s so prevalent that you really can’t escape it. You could stop surfing the web entirely, or accept it as a fact of life, although neither of those options may appeal to you. At least it isnt’ spam in your inbox; you get Flash by hitting the Internet. Spam comes to you regardless. Sometimes, we gotta take our lumps and Flash appears to be one of those for you. In my experience, even over a 28.8 connection the vast majority of Flash enabled sites provide you with a means to get out of the animation or select a non-Flash version altogether. The Flash ads that are starting to appear are so small as to be harmless.

Why so concerned with Flash anyway? There are far more serious breaches of security and misuse of technology that take precedence over Flash.

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Because its my choice as to what non-essential software I will voluntarily install.

Iinstalled IF 6 SP 1 earlier this evening.
The readme m,entions something about Flash 5.0, so maybe MSFY is now installing a Flash wannabe with IE 6.

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I understand that – but you missed the point. Quite simply, it’s everywhere, and you can either avoid it by reducing your browser’s functionality severely, or just accept it as a fact of life. No one said you have to like it, and I myself don’t – but I can’t change the world, so I don’t expend the effort fighting that battle.

It’s kind of like the laws in any country or municipality; they might not be right and sometimes you get the shaft. But what are you going to do about it? One person that disagrees with a de facto standard isn’t going to change it, although you certainly have the right to boycott it. Problem being with the INternet, you can’t tell until you visit a site whether Flash is there, so your choices are further reduced.

Cheers,

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> Problem being with the INternet, you can’t tell until you visit a site whether Flash is there, so your choices are further reduced.

Well, this assumes you are too lazy to write your own browser.

But seriously, it is sad that we tolerate the indignities heaped upon us by Internet Explorer. I’m still annoyed that File|Properties… doesn’t show the date the page was last updated (you have to plumb the Document Object Model). Or that you can’t accept/reject cookies based on the source (e.g., not from the main page you loaded). There are things MS should have copied from NS 2.12.

It wouldn’t be that hard to write a “front-end” to IE that would pre-fetch pages and sniff them according to your specifications. But finding the time…

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IE 6, and as I recall, IE 5 allow us to selectively block cookies.

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Howard, the image is “above” in jscher’s post. ;-]

IE has contained Flash as part of the installationfor a long time (IE3?? or at least IE4). Did you uninstall it at some time, or has it always been there? Certainly the new version of IE6sp1 has Flash incorporated into it.

Mark, I must agree with Howard and disagree with you on this aspect. I NEVER want to see a Flash ad — and I never do. I have what I consider a ‘full’ Internet Experience without getting pummelled by cutesy, in-your-face Flash ads. I have listed several ways to accomplish this goal. i can list several more, but that is not necessary at this point.

If you want Flash ads, fine, keep them. But there are MANY options to get rid of them and still have a fully functional browser. Getting rid of Flash ads certainly does not qualify as “reducing your browser’s functionality severely” — in my book.

If you want to:

1) keep ALL ActiveX functionality in the Internet zone EXCEPT Flash
2) prevent IE from ever calling upon the Flash control
3) still keep Flash on your computer

Then all you need to do is perform a surgical strike and set the “Kill Bit” for Flash. To do this, just create the correct registry entries and set the CompatibilityFlags to “400” — like this:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerActiveX Compatibility{D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000}]
“Compatibility Flags”=dword:00000400

For information on doing this, please read this. You don’t have to accept all the junk web sites want to throw at you.

Howard, if you are worried about the time being wasted downloading the ActiveX control from Macromedia.com, then set up IE to NOT download ActiveX controls at all — see jscher’s image.

If you want to SPECIFICALLY prevent Macromedia from downloading Flash (or anything else), you could place Macromedia in you Restricted sites zone (and fully disable this zone), or you could go so far as to completely block your computer from *ever* reaching Macromedia by sticking http://www.macromedia.com in your Hosts file set to a loopback address (127.0.0.1).

You have SO many options, there is no reason why this has to be a problem… IMHO.

jscher – “Or that you can’t accept/reject cookies based on the source (e.g., not from the main page you loaded).”

This has been an option ever since IE5 Security Privacy Beta, and it has always been in IE6. Go to Tools | Internet Options… | Privacy | Advanced. See image below.

IE6 cookie control is even FAR more complicated than this — and I would gladly get in a lengthy discussion about its capabilities — but they are certainly not designed for the average user to control… My quick word of advice: Avoid the “Privacy Slider” like the plague.

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I have not touched IE’s Flash, but IE installs an old version. Indeed, last night I installed IE 6 SP 1, so I have the latest IE stuff.

I expect that the Flash downloads are just trying to force me to get an updated Flash from Macromedia.

I have no objection to IE having such built-in capabilities, my objection is the attempt to force me to update such software from 3rd parties.

I’ve already changed IE to not accept ActiveX controls.

I already block lots of sites for cookies and I ALWAYS require a prompt for cookies.

There are some sites tat just don’t know how to use cookies.
For example, there are sites for well-known retailers that do not even let you peruse the site unless cookies are enabled. They do not seem to understand:

1. Perusing has nothing to do with transactions.
2. If I am willing to bear the pain of responding to a Prompt, that’s the equivalen of Enable, unless they are trying to sneak by some crap cookies.
3. I will sometimes allow cookies to visit such a site and then delete the critters as soon as I am done.

I am totally opposed to Push technology and opt-out.
I guess there will never be laws to protect us as long as the pimps/whores in the legislatures/Congress get money from special interests.

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>I have no objection to IE having such built-in capabilities, my objection is the attempt to force me to update such software from 3rd parties.

Flash is one of the most egregious of these. As long as you don’t accept ActiveX downloads, you have likely achieve your desired goal. If you go to a lot of sites with Flash on them, you may get tired of the lovely “Warning” screen IE makes you look at. Setting the Kill Bit prevents this annoying screen.

I dislike prompts intensely, so I don’t get ‘cookie prompts’. But I don’t get cookies I don’t want either — and with a minimal amount of effort.

If you use IE6’s cookie control abilities to their fullest extent, there is NO reason you have to deal with prompts or annoying “browsing” cookies remaining behind in your Cookies folder. You can access ANY site — even if they require cookies — and the cookie will be deleted when your browser session is closed. IE6 has the power to take care of ALL of this behind the scenes — with no user intervention.

But that is another topic… ;-] Good luck with your settings.

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[indent]

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jscher – “Or that you can’t accept/reject cookies based on the source (e.g., not from the main page you loaded).”

This has been an option ever since IE5 Security Privacy Beta, and it has always been in IE6. Go to Tools | Internet Options… | Privacy | Advanced. See image below.

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[/indent]I have the usual SPs for IE5.5 but no such privacy tab/button. I guess I’ll wait until I get IE6. Thank goodness MS got around to this finally.

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My point is that I refuse to voluntarily install any uneeded software.
I don’t need flash because I don’t care about what it does and it is irresponsible for any script writer to waste my time downloading the files and asking me if I wish to install. If anything, they should be asking first, then downloading.

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Your point is understood, Howard – what I’m trying to tell you is that you’re not going to change irresponsible design. Even if you want to, you can’t force any script writer to change their ways, and you’d best get used to the idea that no one is going to ask for your permission when they design their web pages. There are plenty of solutions listed in this thread, but ranting about bad design practice isn’t solving the problem.

Don’t install the software, if that’s the best measure. Disable “Install on Demand” in IE and you likely won’t see the prompts for it ever again.

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Mark, sorry to be a stickler — but compulsivity is the *only* good trait I have! ;-]

“Install on Demand” isn’t exactly the same thing as “Download ActiveX controls”. You can disable “Install on Demand” all you want, and you will still get many ActiveX controls.

Description of the “Install on Demand” and “Automatically Check for Updates” Features

Note: I am aware that Flash is listed as an “installable component”, but this is section is referring to automatic upgrades to IE6 and not downloading ActiveX controls. I have had “Download on Demand” off forever and I can STILL get the “automatic” Flash download from Macromedia…

There may be confusion because unlike some other third-party ActiveX controls, Flash IS considered a “component” of IE since it is incorporated into the initial installation.

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Try setting it to prompt for a while (or, as I do, all the time) so you can see which sites ask. I get it mostly from “rich media” inline advertisements, and am happy to say “Nope.”

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OK, I’ll try that.
I already require prompting for cookies.

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I just visited http://www.macromedia.com and did not receive any prompts to download Flash.

For a true test, I need to find another site to test.

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Try this: PC911

They use a simple Flash ad at the top of the screen.

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Ayup, at PC911, I get a prompt :

“Do you want to allow software such as ActiveX controls and plug-ins to run?

Followed by:

“Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly.”

Guess I’ll live with those prompts unless I find out whether it matters at some site.

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Let me know when you get tired of those warnings!

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I have a very high pain threshold, so don’t hold your breath.

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Is there a reason to NOT disable “Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins” and/or “Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting”?

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Microsoft keeps proliferating the ActiveX controls, like Office Web Controls, and by dropping Netscape plug-in support in IE 5.5 sp1 (I think), basically forced third parties to use ActiveX, including QuickTime, for example. So blocking all ActiveX controls does involve some potential loss of functionality. Flash might be the number 1 application in terms of frequency, but it isn’t the only one. If you are prompted, you can say No and inspect the page source to figure out what control wants to run. In some cases, this might not be so straightforward, but if it looks clean, you can refresh and say Yes and you’re off to the races. If you disable completely, you have more rigamarole to go through to make it work if you want it to.

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I agree with the surgical strike approach to stopping Flash only — if you just want to get rid of the annoying Flash ads that pop-up all over the web. I recommended this tactic starting from the fourth post (Post: 177492) in this long thread!! Also in that post I indicated that there is a difference between “running” and “downloading” ActiveX controls.

I described how to set the Flash kill bit as early as my third post (Post: 177680), but Howard’s response has always been that he wants the DOWNLOADING of *all* new programs blocked — so setting the kill bit did not interest him.

You can block program (control) downloading, but still RUN previously downloaded QuickTime or Acrobat Reader plug-ins. The Security tab in IE gives you multiple options that you can choose — it is not a simple “yes” or “no” choice to using ActiveX.

If Howard decides you would like to allow OTHER ActiveX programs to be downloaded — such as QuickTime or Acrobat Reader controls — he can Enable the downloading of Signed ActiveX Controls (or set it to Prompt). If he further wants to completely avoid getting prompts from Flash or Shockwave downloads, all he has to do is restrict access to macromedia.com.

With less effort than it takes to post a response like this, the whole thing can be set up to do exactly what the user wants to do…..

But so far, all he specifically was interested in doing was keeping all unauthorized software off his system. In this instance, Disabling the downloading of ALL ActiveX controls accomplishes his desired goal.

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What I like is what I have set for my Internet Zone:

Download signed ActiveX controls: Disable
Download unsigned ActiveX controls: Disable
Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe: Disable
Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins: Prompt
Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting: Prompt

Flash runs if I say Yes, and doesn’t if I say no (the banners then usually turn into little X boxes).

You would think everyone could deal with this but no, virtually every QuickTime movie wants to script some ActiveX control not marked as “safe for scripting.” Maybe it’s the QuickTime control itself? I don’t know. It means I have to mess with the settings every time I want to watch a QuickTime video. Maybe Apple has fixed this by now, but I have no time to dig for it tonight.

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Howard, I just ran across this from the latest Windows 2000/XP FAQ newsletter:

Q. How can I prevent Macromedia Shockwave Player content from displaying in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)?

A. To disable Shockwave Player content in IE, perform the following steps:
1. Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerActiveX Compatibility registry subkey.
3. From the Edit menu, select New, Key.
4. Enter a name of “{166B1BCA-3F9C-11CF-8075-444553540000}” without the quotes, then press Enter.
5. Select the new key, then, from the Edit menu, select New, DWORD Value.
6. Enter a name of “Compatibility Flags” without the quotes, then press Enter.
7. Double-click the new value, set it to 400 (hexadecimal mode), then click OK.

To reenable Shockwave Player content, set the registry value to 0.[/list]

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Described above in my post #177680…. ;-]

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THanx.

I had forgotten about that FAQ.

I was not looking for a way to disable the player.
I just wanted to prevent the downloads of the player.
This seems to have been accomplised by disabling Activex controls, or some such setting.

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That’s disabling DOWNLOAD ActiveX controls… ;-]

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New Year, so I decided to try something new.

Hope you are sitting down when you read this!

I installed Flash Player 6.

Hunting thru the Macromedia web site, I found out how to uninstall the beast should I so decide to take that action.

However, I’ve not found out how to get into the Settings Manager so that I can set/change privacy, storage, camera, and microphone settings. How is that done?

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Right-click a Flash presentation, choose Settings… and you get the little mini-panel below.

I don’t see the Advanced button described on this page. Is that what you’re looking for??

If you have some time on your hands to experiment, the ActiveX control is as follows on Win2K:

C:WINNTSystem32macromedflashFlash.ocx

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I found those articles, but how is one to obtain a Flash presentation on which to right click?

Alsom the article on uninstalling the Flash refers to a NPSWF32.DLL, but I cannot find such a file.

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> I found those articles, but how is one to obtain a Flash presentation on which to right click?

That’s why I left the URL on the graphic for ya.

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