Broken IE6 under WinXP Pro SP2. Can't play SWF files.

[jmowrey]

Good afternoon all,

I've recently run into an issue with IE6 playing SWF files. As of now when i try to play a SWF file within IE6 I get nothing but a white screen. If I remove KB943460 the files play correctly....although I dont think the patch is the root of the problem. I do have units with the patch that dont experience the problem. Only some do. Making this very annoying.


My situation is that I have a vendor application that plays local SWF files on our workstations. The vendor app has a local cache of SWF content files that it plays based on triggered events. The application basically acts as an extention of IE when it trys to play the files. So, the application wont play the files and neither will native IE making this a system issue and not a vendor application issue.

The strange part is that IE shows that Shockwave and Flash are installed correctly. I can view flash content on a web page just fine. Adobe's page for testing the plugins also shows both as A-oK. It's only when I try to open a local SWF file that I have the problems.

Thanks to everyone in advance

 

[BadBigBen]

KB943460, as you know fixes a problem with the URI Handling...

so the questions are, which revision of the Patch do you have? latest is 3.0...

how does the application parse the local files to IE...

There are freeware SWF players around, which could be used instead of IE to view the files...

Solutions:

1.) if the system hardly goes into the internet, etc. then leave the Update be (don't install it)...

2.) install IE7 and then update it... and try it...

3.) install a stand alone FlashPlayer/SWF Player and associate the SWF files with it... Problem: while surfing certain sites and viewing SWF files, they would be displayed in that player not in IE...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[linney]

If there is a problem with a corrupted Flash Player you can try this.

How to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX control

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=2

What File Association does .SWF have in Folder Options/ File Types?

IEfix may be worth a look.
Internet Explorer Fix

http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/IEFIX.htm

 

[jmowrey]

These units are in a heavily managed (80,000+) environment so leaving out the patch, moving to IE7, and using other players aren't options for me. Also, the vendor application requires IE to function properly and can't be forced to use other players.

I honestly dont think that the patches are the real problem though. Earlier in 2007 when we were piloting the solution we did see the white screen problems. By some strange chance the patch KB931768 was released soon after and 'fixed' the problem. Since then we haven't seen the issue...until now. One thing that brought it on was the fact that some of our units had not been patched in a couple months. When they got slammed with 20 or so patches the white screens showed up again. I think the patches are simply bringing a seperate problem to the surface.

I did try the uninstall/reinstall of Flash, Shockwave, etc. to no avail. Like I said previously...if you go to a site like

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/

it will say that everything is installed and working correctly.

 

[linney]

Just some other resources that you can try for a solution.

Open SWF General Discussion

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/categories.cfm?forumid=15&catid=221&entercat=y

If the problem does not occur when you remove the Microsoft Update, then Microsoft Support should be free and available to help you diagnose the problem.