Archived Flash Players for Testing Purposes

If you are setting up Flash detection, you'll probably want to run some tests to make sure that it's working. This means that you need to test for the lack of a plug-in/ActiveX control, and you need to have access to older versions of the Player. Fortunately, Macromedia makes getting older copies of the Player easy. All you have to do is browse to www.macromedia.com/support/flash/ts/documents/oldplayers.htm.

That's the good news. The bad news is that you have to have multiple browsers with multiple Players installed, or you have to uninstall one Player and install another for testing. Uninstalling the Player for Netscape for both Windows and Macintosh and for IE on the Macintosh is a simple process because the Player is implemented as a plug-in. This means that you have to move or remove just one file. The next exercise walks you through the uninstall process for the plug-n.

Exercise 26.4 Uninstalling the Flash Plug-in

Uninstalling or disabling the Netscape/IE plug-in is a relatively simple process.

1. Make sure that the browser window is closed, and browse to the Plugins directory. The directory path will vary depending on your installation, but it will look something like this:

   Windows: c:\Program Files\Netscape\Plugins

   Macintosh: HD:Applications:Netscape:Plugins

   Unix/Solaris: /usr/bin/Netscape/plugins

   For example, on my machine, with Windows 2000, the path is this:

   \Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\Plugins

   You can see that there is some variation.

2. After you find the Plugins folder, look for this:

   Windows: NPSWF32.dll

   Macintosh: Shockwave-Flash-NP-PPC or Shockwave-Flash-NP-68

   Unix/Solaris: libflashplayer.so and Shockwave.class

3. To delete the plug-in, delete the file (or files, on UNIX/Solaris). To disable it, just move the file or files into another folder. If you've just moved the files, you can reinstall the plug-in by putting the files back in the Plugins folder.

4. Open your browser and test away.

5. If you're dealing with IE on the Macintosh, look for the plug-ins folder and then continue with Step 2.

Now, if only things were that easy for the ActiveX control under Windows IE . . .

Exercise 26.5 Uninstalling the Flash ActiveX Control (Windows IE Only)

Uninstalling the ActiveX control for Internet Explorer on a Windows machine is a little uglier. First you have to find the path to the ActiveX control, and then you must use regSvr32.exe to remove its registry entry. The basic steps are listed here:

1. Close your browser and do a Windows file search for swflash.ocx.

2. Note the path to the file. On my machine, it's this:

   \WINNT\system32\Macromed\Flash

   If you have more than one copy of the file on your machine, note the paths for each one.

3. Choose Start, Run. In the entry field, type this, where {path} is the path that you found in Step 2:

    regSvr32 {path}\swflash.ocx /u 

   Using my machine as an example, I would type this:

    regSvr32 C:\WINNT\system32\Macromed\Flash\swflash.ocx /u 

4. Click OK. You should see a dialog box indicating success, similar to Figure 26.9.

   Figure 26.9. The RegSvr32 dialog box indicates that the executable succeeded.

   

   But waityou're not done yet. Now you have to go in and delete the actual swflash.ocx file itself.

5. Search for the file again. This time, right-click it and select Delete. Delete every instance that you find.

6. But waityou're still not done. You have one more file to track down and delete: Search for the swflash.inf file, and delete it.

7. Reboot your machine, and you're ready to test away. Remember, however, that you'll need to download and reinstall the current Flash Player when you're done testing.

See Macromedia's TechNote 14266 for details on which versions of the old Flash Players are available for which platforms.

No matter which player you're testing with, you need to be aware of some platform-specific issues with Flash. You'll look at those next.