Skip to main content

Installing Flash and Shockwave in Firefox Portable when using restricted computers

If you have just installed Firefox Portable, you would find that there is no Flash or Shockwave in the installation. The official website has a Support page explaining how to get these two in the installation. These procedures assume that you either have access to a computer that has a normal Firefox installation, or that you have Administrator privileges. And oh, the Flash extension does not work with the new version of Firefox.

However, you may be using a computer that you have very limited access on. For example a school or university library computer that is designed to let the students use the Internet. In such cases, the installation of Shockwave will fail due to having no Admin privileges. And you will have nowhere to copy Flash from, since a restricted computer will not usually have a normal Firefox installation, and you may not have access to C drive of the computer.

In such cases when you are using a heavily restricted computer, here's the sure-fire way to get Flash, Shockwave or both plugged into your Firefox Portable. But actually you can use the same method for every computer. Note that you only need to do this once for every new Firefox Portable installation.

1. Get 7-Zip Portable from here and install it on your thumb drive.
2. Go here for Flash and/or here for Shockwave. Download and save the EXE files. Do not run them.
3. Open each of the downloaded files in 7-Zip Portable and select these files accordingly:
Flash: flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll
Shockwave: SHOCKWAVEPLUGIN.CLASS and NP32DSW.DLL
4. Extract them to FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins and restart Firefox Portable

That's it. Adobe Flash and Shockwave should be up and running now.

Update (10 July 2009): It seems to me that the file "shockwaveplugin.class" no longer exists. You may try with "np32dsw.dll" only and check if it works by going to this webpage: Test Adobe Shockwave and Flash Players

Comments

  1. nice post bro, concise, terima kasih bung!

    ReplyDelete
  2. bro, imho you should add the step to rename the extension to ZIP so 7-zip (portable version) can recognize it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you, I don't know how to say "welcome" in Malay. =)

    There is no need for that. 7-Zip Portable (the USB version) does not have any file association anyway, so renaming to ZIP files may not help. Besides you can open any file as an archive in 7-Zip regardless of what the file extension is.

    Another thing is, this post is especially for computers with restricted access (but can be equally useful on your own PCs). When computers are restricted, the users may not be able to rename or even see the extension of the files.

    As for the installed version of 7-Zip, you can just right-click any file and, regardless of the extension, there will be options to open the file as an archive in 7-Zip or to extract the file.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Arun ! I have firefox portable .. at office .. don't have admin rights .. I did excactly how you've written,however the shockwave games runs pretty slow man !
    Any tips to make the over all experience faster ??

    ReplyDelete
  5. It could be that the computer you're using is either a low-end computer (unable to run Shockwave games smoothly) or your IT department has somehow restricted your computer's processing power to prevent people from playing games. Try running your Firefox Portable in another high-end computer (maybe your home computer) and see if the Shockwave games runs smoothly.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice guide... however for Shockwave I have copied NP32DSW.dll to the appropriate folder but can't find SHOCKWAVEPLUGIN.CLASS anywhere... can you tell me where to find this?
    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you. I wrote this guide almost a year ago, and things have changed a little since. I checked out the new Shockwave installer, and true enough, there is no "shockwaveplugin.class"

    It seems to me that you only need np32dsw.dll. Try it and let me know the results. Add in any other files you may feel is necessary for Shockwave to run properly in Firefox Portable. Or you can make a comparison with a permanent Firefox installation.

    You can test both Shockwave and Flash here: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/

    Post your findings as a comment here =)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I tested it with only np32dsw.dll and it indeed works for me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi! Nice post.

    But something doesn't works for me. Of course, I don't have administrative rights and can't install anything.

    I did all the steps for shockwave but I get this error when surfing sites that require shockwave: "Windows cannot find C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\folder\Firefox Portable\Data\Plugins\swdnld.exe Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again."

    Any idea?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Please ensure that the folder "C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\folder\Firefox Portable\Data\Plugins" actually exists on the computer you are using.

    I have checked out what "swdnld.exe" file is, and it is indeed a file belonging to Shockwave. But it looks like a Shockwave Downloader.

    Have you checked the test site for Adobe Shockwave and Flash? The link for the test site is at the end of my post (in the Update section). Make sure you restart Firefox before testing.

    You may need to extract the file "swdnld.exe" or even all the files in the Shockwave installation file, not just the "NP32DSW.DLL". Try it and let me know your results :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. The folder exists. But after unzipping the shockwave.exe file i can't find in there swdnld.exe.
    I've tested firefox on that link. It doesn't work. I've put the entire unzipped shockwave in the folder. Still doesn't work.
    Downloaded swdnld.exe from another computer. Still nothing.

    Should I mention I don't have shockwave pre-installed on my comp? :D

    ReplyDelete
  12. Perhaps you may want to try installing Shockwave using the normal installation method. But I don't know if you can, since you say "I don't have administrative rights and can't install anything."

    Sorry that I'm unable to help you. You may want to do further research on the subject. My post is old and some information could be outdated. However, some comments above state that it still works, with a few changes.

    I hope you can figure this out. You may also want to seek help from those who have had Shockwave work recently. I have not been using Firefox Portable as of late (though I use Firefox).

    ReplyDelete
  13. still no joy with Shockwave Director :( anyone?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated, and are usually posted within 24 hours if approved. You must have a minimum of OpenID to post comments.

Popular posts from this blog

Disable auto save in JetBrains IDE software (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, PhpStorm)

JetBrains provides the following IDE software: IntelliJ IDEA PhpStorm PyCharm RubyMine WebStorm AppCode CLion Google also provides Android Studio which is powered by the IntelliJ platform. If you come from a different IDE such as Eclipse, you will be unpleasantly surprised to find that JetBrains-branded IDEs automatically save everything the moment you look away. The proponents argue that as you work on your project, you should not have to worry about saving files. But to others, this auto-save behavior which is enabled by default is a curse that catches them by surprise, and a shocking departure from the workflow they are very much used to. You can change the behavior by altering some settings.

How to force redirect HTTP to HTTPS in Amazon Elastic Beanstalk

After picking up bits and pieces over the Internet, here I have the complete guide for my particular setup. My Amazon AWS Elastic Beanstalk (ELB or EBS) is as follows: 64bit Amazon Linux 2016.03 v2.1.1 running Tomcat 8 Java 8 Java/JSP application on Apache Tomcat Maven Build How to get it done: First, configure your EBS instance: Go to Configuration and click the gear on Load Balancing. Under Load Balancer, set the following options: Listener port: 80 Protocol: HTTP Secure listener port: 443 Protocol: HTTPS SSL certificate ID: Choose the cert ID that goes with your server. If you don't have one, you can use Certificate Manager to create one. Apply and save this configuration. Let the server health be OK. Test it by accessing your application web page through both HTTP and HTTPS: HTTP should load the page unsecurely. HTTPS should load the page securely. No port number should be added after the domain name in either case. Then, add a configuration file

Make Samsung DVD-C350 region-free

Update 2: An anonymous commentator has shown me a way to make Region 1 players (such as DVD-H1080R) region-free by first converting it to Region 3, then applying my region-free hack below. For details, click here or look for a comment by an Anonymous user dated 18 April 2011. Update: The instructions in the original post below did not make the DVD player region-free. Instead it only locked it to region 1. Many thanks to Anonymous who posted the first comment on this post, I now have alternate instructions. Note: If you have edited the numbers menu (see original post) , I suggest you return it to the original settings you had backed up. A modified numbers menu may prevent the instructions below from working properly.