# Turn off "Flash" in IE?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-flash-in-ie/162196>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 18, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-flash-in-ie/162196 "2003-03-18T03:24:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-flash-in-ie/162196/1 "2003-03-18T03:24:15Z")

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I have Macromedia Flash in my I.E. 6.0

Is there anyway to turn it off? Some of the ads that it enables are just horrific.

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**Author:** ![Hilow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@Hilow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilow)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-flash-in-ie/162196/2 "2003-03-18T04:36:15Z")

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You can’t turn Flash off specifically, but it is an ActiveX control and you can turn those off. By doing so, however, you are also turning off ActiveX controls you may want to use like Real Audio, Windows Media Player, and Adobe Acrobat.

You can also set it to prompt you each time the page wants to run an ActiveX control, but it is kind of obnoxious. First it asks you whether to let it run and if you say no, it then tells you that you said no. Still, I find this option better than not knowing when a page is trying to run them when I might want to let it.

To turn it off or set it to prompt, from the tools menu click options. When the window opens, select the security tab. Click on the Internet globe and click the Custom Level button. The first five questions are the ones you want. I set “Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe” and “Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins” to prompt. You can also set them to disable.

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**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-flash-in-ie/162196/3 "2003-03-18T04:36:49Z")

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[This](http://faq.ozoneasylum.com/FaqWiki/shownode.php?id=446&sortby=rating) site appears to have some good info, but as I haven’t tried any of the offered solutions, proceed at your own risk.

If you can put up with the hideous txt/background clash.

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**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-flash-in-ie/162196/4 "2003-03-18T06:52:50Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Hilow \*  
> You can’t turn Flash off specifically, but it is an ActiveX control and you can turn those off. By doing so, however, you are also turning off ActiveX controls you may want to use like Real Audio, Windows Media Player, and Adobe Acrobat.

AFAIK, those are called browser plug-ins.

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**Author:** ![EasyPhil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47c2d/32.png) [@EasyPhil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EasyPhil)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-flash-in-ie/162196/5 "2003-03-18T08:35:43Z")

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[www.proxomitron.org](http://www.proxomitron.org)

The have an application called The Proxomitron, the allows you to specifically turn of Flash amongst other things.

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**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turn-off-flash-in-ie/162196/6 "2003-03-18T14:30:57Z")

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Thanks!