Problem with IE opening SWF files (IE 7)

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I have been unable to get Flashplayer 9 to open SWF files, so have used Internet Explorer 7, which until recently opened these files with several prompts and warnings. About a week ago I changed a number of security settings for IE 7 to harden it in accordance with instructions in Woody’s “Hacks & Mods” and Brian Livingston’s tips in his Windows Secrets Newsletter. Since then, I’ve not been able to get IE7 to accept and open the same SWF files it did originally. I’ve now spent several hours fiddling with IE 7’s security settings, even resetting its “defaults,” but nothing seems to work to allow me again to open SWF files. I use Firefox 2 as my main browser so I don’t really have a problem with weakening IE 7’s security for the few websites that I use that still won’t accept Firefox. I would welcome any suggestions as to what security settings I should be using.

Admiral 38

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The Flash player is an ActiveX control, so if you have Enable or Prompt for running ActiveX controls, you should be able to use Flash. But I don’t know about issues specific to IE7… did you get the latest update from Adobe? See this thread over on the Software board: Adobe Flash Player 9 updated.

Added: As you know IE has multiple security zones. If the problem is not with the general Internet zone, which zone has the problem?

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Installing Flash Player seems to be a problem. I’ve downloaded the latest version, but when I try to install it, there’s a quick flash as if it’s trying to install, but nothing happens, so something seems to be blocking the installation. Also, after trying to install Flash Player I can’t find it listed among the programs shown in my Control Panel/Add/Remove Programs menu. Whether or not this is related to the security settings in Internet Explorer, I don’t know. I’ve set all the settings related to ActiveX in IE7 to either “enabled” or “prompt,” but this doesn’t seem to change anything. I appreciate your comments, but do you have any other suggestions for me to try. This is very frustrating.

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I don’t have IE7, so I probably can’t do any dialog-level troubleshooting. However, I can check the problem sites to see whether anything unique pops out at me. Can you provide links to the non-playing SWFs?

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I don’t have the original links to most of the SWF files I’m having trouble with now. Normally, I’ve downloaded them to my hard drive, and then, until recently, I’ve been able to open them with Internet Explorer. First, using IE6 and, more recently, IE7. As best I can recall, I didn’t have any problems with either one until about a week ago. However, here’s a link to the last SWF that I couldn’t open. After that, I couldn’t open any of the other SWFs that I had in my files, either. It doesn’t seem to be related to the version of Internet Explorer being used, as I’ve uninstalled IE7 and reinstalled IE6 without any success. (I’ve now reinstalled IE7.) I think it must have something to do with IE’s security settings, but I’ve tried changing most of them without any success. I’ve even reset the security settings to the original defaults, in both versions, without any success.

http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf

Two of my friends have been able to open this file without any difficulties, but they don’t know how their computers work, so they can’t help me. They just click on OPEN, apparently, and up it comes. My computer refuses to do that. Anyway, if you can open this one, perhaps that will give you some ideas. However, as I said, the fact that I can’t seem to get Flash Player to install is probably at the root of my problem.

Thanks for your help.

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(Edited by jscher2000 on 20-Nov-06 15:26. )

Files on your computer are governed by the settings for the Local or My Computer zone, which is not visible by default in IE6’s Internet Options dialog, but can be made visible. I have no idea about IE7. Anyway, this is what I get in IE6. If you have suppressed the “info bar”, try turning it back on and see whether this is what is happening for you, too.

Added: I used right-click, Open With to get this to display in IE. Otherwise, SWF isn’t associated with anything.

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jscher2000 — I’m really not sure what’s going on, but I uninstalled IE7 and was left with IE6. Then, instead of trying to open the downloaded file for Empire 17, I pasted the link into IE’s address bar. This time I was asked to download FlashPlayer, which I did. I also raised the security levels to medium. I haven’t as yet tried all my troublesome SWFs, but Empire 17 and another test SWF work just fine. The info bar and cautions that weren’t being displayed before are now being displayed (both using IE6 and Firefox as browsers). This is what I had before my troubles started. Now, tomorrow I’ll try IE 7 again and see if that is the problem. It would appear that we’re on the right track. If you don’t hear from me again soon, you will know that it’s working. Thanks very, very much for your help. This 90-year old man will sleep better tonight.

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