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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. Anonymous18 February, 2009 20:45

    nice post bro, concise, terima kasih bung!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous18 February, 2009 20:50

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

    ReplyDelete
  3. ADTC18 February, 2009 22:11

    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. Satyam Roy28 May, 2009 20:15

    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. ADTC29 May, 2009 00:07

    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. Hi09 July, 2009 15:41

    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. ADTC09 July, 2009 21:58

    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. DeciSpark28 July, 2009 23:58

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

    ReplyDelete
  9. Andrei20 August, 2009 17:40

    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. ADTC20 August, 2009 17:52

    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. Andrei20 August, 2009 18:59

    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. ADTC20 August, 2009 19:23

    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. Anonymous30 September, 2010 16:23

    still no joy with Shockwave Director :( anyone?

    ReplyDelete

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