Quote:
Originally Posted by earlyfilm
Everytime when I sign on to VideoKarma, this message pops up: "This website wants to run the following add-on: 'Adobe Flash Player' from 'Adobe Systems Incorporated'. If you trust the website and the add-on and want to allow it to run, click here..."
|
Microsoft introduced this behavior starting with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and its version of Internet Explorer 6 SP2. It is a legitimate alert, though because of its appearance underneath the browser's controls (toolbar and menu area) the alert has been faked by some websites.
Assuming it's legitimate, you are probably seeing the alert for three reasons:
1. Your copy of Flash Player updated itself automatically. All recent releases do this (though so far I haven't seen one install silently).
2. Something on the web page (probably an ad) wants to make use of Flash Player.
3. Something is wrong with the Flash Player installation on your computer.
I don't use Internet Explorer as my regular browser, so I couldn't tell you if an upgraded plugin will produce this message. I
think it does.
If the alert is being faked--and it can be hard to tell for sure--it is very likely you have some malware on your computer. If this particular message appears outside of Internet Explorer, it's fake. (Were the alert fake, I'd expect it to put up a much more alarming notice, in the hope of scaring you into doing something.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by earlyfilm
This computer has the latest updates from Microsoft, along with the IE 8 browser.
|
If you can, I would suggest using a browser--
any browser--other than Internet Explorer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by earlyfilm
[...] but all of a sudden over half of the websites that I visit have stopped working and keep telling me that I need Flash.
|
Perhaps your Flash installation is corrupted. I would uninstall it, restart your computer and then redownload the latest version directly from the Adobe web site.
Quote:
Originally Posted by earlyfilm
If one forgets to uncheck it, Adobe will install google chrome automatically.
|
The program offered rotates over time. Most usually I see a suggestion to "include McAfee Security Scan" with a Flash Player download. This sort of practice absolutely galls me. I'm sure they make money by doing this, but it's very tiresome to deal with over and over. (Some programs, such as Oracle's Java, are even worse and pull this stunt when installing security updates. I've only noticed Adobe's updater doing this when a new major version of Flash Player comes out and you get directed to the Adobe site to download it.)
Buried in Adobe's troubleshooting pages are links to download the full, not-infested-with-offers-for-other-programs installers for the ActiveX (for Internet Explorer) and "other" (Firefox/Opera/Netscape) versions of the Flash Player plugin. It would be SO nice if they would just deliver these in the first place!