How do I uninstall Shockwave Flash from Firefox?

[willkn]

I've avoided Flash for years, then today wanted to install it temporarily. It promptly begins crashing my Firefox browser, fine, I'll just uninstall it. No obvious way to do that from the Firefox Options (lame). So I figure I can just uninstall Firefox and re-install from scratch. I do that, and the Flash plugin is still there, continuing to crash my browser! What the heck??

Can someone tell me how to get rid of this? It baffles me how Mozilla could be so lame in this way, I've been a big fan and user for many years now. I'm running Firefox 1.0.5.7 on Windows XP.

[Old Limpet235]

This may help > http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_crashes

[the-edmeister]

Can someone tell me how to get rid of this? It baffles me how Mozilla could be so lame in this way, I've been a big fan and user for many years now.

Non-lame users would go into the Control Panel and un-install Flash from there. Plugin programs don't get un-installed from Firefox since they didn't get installed to Firefox; at most there are three DLL files that the installer package for Flash installed into the Firefox \plugin\ folder - they should get removed when the program gets un-installed properly thru the Control Panel.


Ed

[willkn]

The control panel was the first place that I looked after not seeing anything in Firefox. There was absolutely no listing of Macromedia, Shockwave or Flash anywhere in the 'Add or Remove Programs' section.

So I just did a search on all files name '*flash*', sorted by date and found the c:\windows\system32\Macromed\Flash' folder. Got rid of that and the Flash plugin is gone, thank goodness. As far as not being installed 'in' Firefox, the plugin was installed 'via' Firefox, without any 'normal' way for a user to uninstall it, so I still think something needs done about that from the Firefox end - at least some notification to the user that something else is being installed on your computer outside of Firefox control. Bad Bad Bad.

[dickvl]

To find the path to a plugin you can use this method:

Change the plugin.expose_full_path pref to show the full path of the plugins on the about:plugins page (url bar).
In the url bar, type: about:config <enter>
Filter: plugin.expose_full_path -> true (double click to toggle)

Check the path of the plugin(s) on the about:plugins page (url bar)

[rtmjr50]

The control panel was the first place that I looked after not seeing anything in Firefox. There was absolutely no listing of Macromedia, Shockwave or Flash anywhere in the 'Add or Remove Programs' section.

So I just did a search on all files name '*flash*', sorted by date and found the c:\windows\system32\Macromed\Flash' folder. Got rid of that and the Flash plugin is gone, thank goodness. As far as not being installed 'in' Firefox, the plugin was installed 'via' Firefox, without any 'normal' way for a user to uninstall it, so I still think something needs done about that from the Firefox end - at least some notification to the user that something else is being installed on your computer outside of Firefox control. Bad Bad Bad.

Not true .... Flash 9 has a listing in window add/remove .... at least on the 4 computers that I have it install on .... just click on the entry in add/remove and it was uninstall with no problem

If you are still using Flash 8, then this is true .... however, you can either download the uninstaller at the flash web site or follow the instructions to do a manual removal on the site.

--> http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgeb ... d=tn_14157

I also see a entry for shockwave in window add/remove
Adobe Flash PLayer 9 for Flash 9 and Adobe shockwave Player for shockwave 10 .... both seem to work just fine on my winxp/sp2 computers to uninstall them ... before adobe purchase Macromedia, the listing for shockwave was listed in add/remove as Macromedia shockwave ... and of course, you needed to download the uninstaller for flash 7 & 8 from them or follow the manual instructions.

Oh, one last thing ... deleting the folder does not remove the window register entires .... don't be surprise, if Firefox crashes due to the web site trying to find Flash that windows still think does exist.
I would advise you to use CCleaner to remove the register entires from windows.

CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/
it's a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.

later, Richard

[be]

The control panel was the first place that I looked after not seeing anything in Firefox. There was absolutely no listing of Macromedia, Shockwave or Flash anywhere in the 'Add or Remove Programs' section.

Macromedia was acquired by Adobe, so you may find it under A for Adobe in your Add/Remove Programs list

An alternative:
Adobe (Macromedia) themselves make uninstallers (and full installers) for Flash and Shockwave:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/

Choose the right one for your browser (Mozilla) and operating system; that page doesn't have the best usability...

[Alice]

If Firefox is detecting the Flash plugin NPSWF32.dll you can find that out via about:plugins (see dickvl's post).

On uninstalling Flash:
See: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Uninstalling_Flash

Windows and Mac

An uninstaller can be downloaded to remove Flash from your system. See the Flash Player TechNote, How to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX control. After downloading, make sure you completely exit your Mozilla application or other Internet browser before you run the uninstaller.

On Windows systems, the Flash uninstaller may hang at 93% completion. To finish the uninstall, open the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete), click the "Processes" tab, select "killbrowser.exe", click <End Process> and say "yes" to the resulting dialog box [2].

The Windows uninstaller may not remove the Flash plugin from all locations so you should search for the following files and delete, if found:

* NPSWF32.dll
* flashplayer.xpt
* GetFlash.exe
* GetFlash.exe.manifest

[willkn]

Thank you all for the good information. One thing is for sure, the Firefox user support is outstanding!