Uninstall Flash in IE7 and Reinstall - Fixes Crash Issues

Tips - Computers

While Adobe remains fairly non-committal about the existence of this problem, we have been able to isolate this issue down a couple of areas, so some of the items posted here are pure speculation, despite the fact that the end result is that the crashes have been reduced. Keep in mind that this is not the official solution -- neither Microsoft or Adobe acknowledge that IE7 crashes under several situations when it comes across a site that uses Flash -- like MySpace, YouTube or well, even GeoExpat which has a number of Flash banners.

Narrowing down the problem:

From our investigation, it appears that most users who continue to use the Flash 8 plugin in IE7 are unaffected. But when these users upgrade to Flash 9 or install MSN Live Messenger -- which in turn insists on installing Flash 9, there the upgraded software makes its way into the system.

Unfortunately, when the software is installed through MSN Live, it appears that the installation is faulty and this eventually results in IE7 crashing when multiple tabs are open and one or more of the tabs is displaying Flash based content. While we suspect that the problem is caused because the Flash content on the site is manipulating some variables or calling Flash in an in appropriate manner, we believe that in appropriate use of Flash should not crash the browser.

The plugin should detect the problem code and handle in appropriately.

Solution - Reinstall Flash Cleanly:

To reinstall Flash, you need to uninstall the software. This can be done in two ways, the official Adobe way, or using a brute force mechanism. For the technically savvy users, we recommend the brute force mechanism, as it removes any dependencies on Adobe software having to work correctly to uninstall the Flash plugins. Both the mechanisms require that all applications that use Flash, be closed.

If an open application is using flash, the uninstall will fail.

Applications that use flash include all your internet browsers (IE, Firefox, Mozilla, Opera) and often IM applications like MSN, Yahoo, Google Chat etc.

  1. The official uninstall.Follow the instructions from Adobe on this page.The instructions essentially involve downloading a program which goes through your system and removes the plugins. Once you have uninstalled the plugins, make sure you reboot your PC. If in doubt, reboot again.
  2. The brute force uninstall.Open a DOS / CMD Window.

    1) Type cd \windows\systems32\macromedflash
    2) Then type flashutil9b.exe -uninstall Unlock
    3) Finally type flashutil9b.exe -uninstall SafeVersions

    *** If you see a dialog for step 2 or 3, select "Dont Install" and try the step again. You probably had a typo. *** If you see an error "flashutil9b is not recognized ...", install Flash as described below and let us know what happens.

    4) del flash9b.ocx
    5) del flashutil9b.exe
    *** If you see an "Access is Denied" error, it means Flash is in use and you must close all apps besides the DOS command window.

Once you have completed either of the two uninstalls and have rebooted your PC (like we said, if in doubt, reboot again!), reinstall Flash. This can be done by visiting the official Adobe Flash installation page. You can finally test the installation by visiting this page on Adobes site, which verifies the version of the software. As of early March 2007, the latest released version for Windows is 9.0.28.0. This problem is being discussed in several blogs and forums. These include

Search

New Content