Adobe Flash Player (7.0.14.0)

Topic

New Reply

I hope this is the correct forum … I use Vista HP.
A few weeks ago I downloaded the latest Flash 9.0.124.0 and deleted all earlier versions. Software Inspector (great facility for checking some software) then showed me having only the latest Flash. However I have just done another inspection and am now told that I also have an earlier version of Flash back on my computer … version 7.0.14.0. I have deleted this and now have a ‘clean system’ again.
How did this earlier Flash get onto my computer … can some ‘flash pages’ that are not operating to the latest flash standard download earlier versions without my permission? If so, how can I stop this?
Hoping for expertise out there.
Thanks
Ron

Reply | Quote

Replies

Ron. How did you delete the earlier version? The Adobe Knowledge Base article here states that you can now remove the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX control only by using the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller. This situation is said to be the result of “recent enhancements”.

Reply | Quote

Hei John,
Thanks for your reply.
Before I downloaded the latest Flash I used this Adobe uninstaller. There seemed to be no Adobe Flash remaining so I then downloaded their latest version. Also The Software Inspector showed my pc to be ‘clean’ of old versions.
Ron

Reply | Quote

Ron. Assuming that you used the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller we should be confident that older versions were all completely removed. Each version of the plugin Flash Player for browsers is supposed to be completely backwards-compatible. If this is the case there seems to be no justification for Adobe or anyone else arranging for unwanted download and reinstallation of version 7.0.14.0 that was released in September 2003.
There have been major security concerns with the Flash Player resulting in recent patches. Therefore one wouldn’t want older versions for this reason alone.
I have no suggestions for stopping older versions being installed without your knowledge other than trying settings of your security software.

Incidentally System Information for Windows finds only version 9.0.124.0 on the laptop that I am using to type this posting.

Reply | Quote

Thanks John.
Strange one this but I am mostly confident that only the latest Flash is on my pc just now so I will keep an eye on it via Software Inspector etc.
Something in the back of my mind says that earlier Flash can be dumped on a pc if the ‘page’ you are looking at does not support the lastest version?? Or maybe I am getting mixed up with Java.
If it ‘comes back’ then I will try to find out ‘how’
Ron

Reply | Quote

Ron,

I find the prospect of a drive-by download and install of a product such as Flash improbable but not impossible. Have you installed (or re-installed) a product that itself installs an out-of-date version of Flash? Is it possible that you ran the Secunia software inspector with a check mark in “enable thorough system inspection” and picked up a version installed in a non-default location?

When I do a regular inspection (no check mark) all instances of Flash show version 9.0.124.0. When run with the check mark, 3 more instances of Flash show up. One is current (installed with Adobe Air), but two are old versions. One of those was installed along with Adobe Bridge CS3, the other with Photoshop Elements. (I must remember to update these!!)

I suggest you run a “thorough system inspection” with Secunia to see if you have any more instances of Flash installed in non-default locations.

BTW, Secunia has dropped a notch or two in my esteem… it does not check Adobe Reader version 9 (only version 8 and earlier) and it has never checked Thunderbird unless I do a thorough system inspection.

Cheers,

Reply | Quote

Thanks for these clues Paul.
I have never done a thorough Secunia inspection before so have just tried it out … no ‘nasties’ reported in any of the ‘non-default’ locations. Hoorah!
So just now I seem to have a complete clean bill of health but it begs the question of ‘why did Adobe uninstaller (latest version) not uninstall all the old Flash when I ran it prior to installing the latest Flash?’ I only found the old files via Secunia and then got rid of them by using the Vista Search facility (on the file link stated by Secunia) to directly delete the file/s. This early version of Flash did not show up in my Control Panel/Programmes list so I suspect that ‘parts only’ of it were left hovering around in my computer … nailed them now I hope!

How else can one find out about any other ‘stuff” left on a computer that is regarded as ‘risky?’ (Perhaps its better not to know about all this ‘stuff’ to reduce stress levels!)
Cya Ron

Reply | Quote

Good to see you got everything cleared up. Secunia also offers a more extensive software inspection download called the Personal Software Inspector. I haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t comment on it, but it does seem very thorough.

Cheers,

Reply | Quote

Good to see you got everything cleared up. Secunia also offers a more extensive software inspection download called the Personal Software Inspector. I haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t comment on it, but it does seem very thorough.

Cheers,

Hello Paul
Remember this about an old Flash Player being stuck on my pc? Well Secunia told me that yet again version 7.0.14.0 had re-appeared and I also have the latest correctly installed version 10.0.22.87. I thus deleted all Adobe Flash and re-installed the lastest again.
Have you or others got any idea as to why this early version pops up again … it gets installed in the windows/system32/macromed/flash file on my Vista pc. Could it be some programme that installs it and how could I find out more?
Thanks Ron

Reply | Quote

Have you or others got any idea as to why this early version pops up again … it gets installed in the windows/system32/macromed/flash file on my Vista pc. Could it be some programme that installs it and how could I find out more?

Could be a website you visit that does not recognize newer Flash versions. If you use IE, have you noticed any sites requesting Flash be installed?

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Could be a website you visit that does not recognize newer Flash versions. If you use IE, have you noticed any sites requesting Flash be installed?

Joe

Good point Joe … I will keep my eye open for a request. Can I set my pc so that this old flash will not simply download itself without me saying ‘yes’? I have my pc set up fairly tight (as far as I know) such that no software gets downloaded without my permission but I am unsure as to how you control eg old flash versions.
Ron

Reply | Quote

Can I set my pc so that this old flash will not simply download itself without me saying ‘yes’? I have my pc set up fairly tight (as far as I know) such that no software gets downloaded without my permission but I am unsure as to how you control eg old flash versions.

Internet Explorer will display the information bar at the top of the web page indicating what the page is requesting. Many users just “automatically” click to allow whatever is being requested. But, you can just ignore it.

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Hello Paul
Remember this about an old Flash Player being stuck on my pc? Well Secunia told me that yet again version 7.0.14.0 had re-appeared and I also have the latest correctly installed version 10.0.22.87. I thus deleted all Adobe Flash and re-installed the lastest again.
Have you or others got any idea as to why this early version pops up again … it gets installed in the windows/system32/macromed/flash file on my Vista pc. Could it be some programme that installs it and how could I find out more?
Thanks Ron

Hi Ron,

Yes, I remember. What I find truly bizarre is that I found the exact same instance of the Flash player (flash.ocx version 7) on my system this week. I’ve since deleted it but can’t figure out for the life of me how it got installed. I had a problem with my C drive that required some corrective action but I can’t believe this had anything to do with it.

Reply | Quote

Interesting how these little gremlins find their way into our systems … thanks for your replies.

I can’t recall any ‘request’ on IE to ‘allow’ flash to be downloaded but the two grey cells I have ‘up top’ are saying that a while back when looking at a flash stream, the stream said something like ‘updating flash’. Hmm, I will have to keep a look out for whom is the culprit and how can it get past me without me saying OK.
I now use IE8 also set at Medium-High so maybe that’s a bit cleverer … however when I looked at Tools/Manage Add-Ons (before I went to the actual old flash file to delete it … it did also not show on the Windows Programmes?) I did not find a specific reference to this early Flash. Looks a bit sneaky.
Ron

Reply | Quote