# Flash plugin suddenly not working

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-plugin-suddenly-not-working/250249>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 14, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-plugin-suddenly-not-working/250249 "2004-06-14T05:14:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-plugin-suddenly-not-working/250249/1 "2004-06-14T05:14:55Z")

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In the past few days suddenly my flash plugin has stopped working. I’ve tried fooling around with ActiveX controls, uninstalling and reinstalling it, and nothing works.

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**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-plugin-suddenly-not-working/250249/2 "2004-06-14T06:44:17Z")

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It’s been a years since I used MSIE except for special purposes, but somehow your description makes me think you’re using MSIE on Windows. Other browser/OSs tend to make a stronger distinction between “plugins” (machine code executables that are installed manually or automatically, like programs) and downloaded interpreted code like Java/ActiveX aplets that run in a “virtual sandbox”. A proper plug-in can do pretty much as it wishes, like any machine code executable (at least in Windows), but an ActiveX or Java applet has a more limited range that is meant to make them safe.

You should specify which OS and browser you’re on. For example, I had a long issue with Mozilla on Win2K periodically forgetting about Flash. After a year of upgrades, it refused to execute the Flash plugin at all. The solution wouldn’t apply to any other browser or many non-Win OSs. (My problem was caused by overwriting a v1.2 over an older install without uninstalling. This had not caused me any other problems, but was a ‘known issue’ in the docs. Once I’d made the error, it was perpetuated by later installs, which ordinarily didn’t require uninstalling.)

Registry entries and other OS/app vagaries can be inscrutable.

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**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flash-plugin-suddenly-not-working/250249/3 "2004-06-14T19:13:33Z")

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Oh, right. Internet Explorer 6.02 on Windows XP.