Digital Wild West

Aka, gritting one’s teeth and negotiating a dozen ‘dialogues’ to the bitter end.

I always insist your primary mission is to know and understand your computer, to feed it, nurture it, protect it, … to UPDATE it!

Problem: Deciding if you should update Adobe Flash Player in response to an unsolicited dialogue, usually after either restarting your PC or opening an Internet Browser.

Mission: To simply follow the dialogue (small nagging windows) till the software is "updated" and not get distracted OR bluffed by nefarious choices.

Steps: Additional to simply following prompts, you would likely restart your PC twice and test each time by starting your web browser.

Conclusion: Adobe Flash Player is worth updating as it is integral to properly viewing most visual content on web pages, not only adverts. It is key software. But go the full distance: visit the Adobe player test page and also install/update the Shockwave player too.

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Despite the unbelievable hoops and gotchas that companies like SUN (Java), Microsoft (Vista, XP, MS Office, Internet Explorer) and Adobe (Acrobat Reader & Writer, Photoshop, Flash & Shockwave) make you perform and dash yourself on the rocks of, you simply have NO CHOICE but to keep your computer UP TO DATE with software patches and updates IF you are going to use your PC on the Internet.

Like all software, even the simplest components can be hijacked by the bad guys and used to attack your PC. By ‘attack’ I mean do anything they please, from stealing information to totaly destroying your data and making it into a PC-shaped door stop.

When companies like Adobe discover their lovely Flash player has a bug that allows crooks turn it into the player from hell, they have little choice but to issue a "patch" or fixed version for download and install.

If Adobe tell you to update the Flash player — just do it.

And here is a typical sequence of misery you will need to wrestle.

1. The warning.

While a bogus message is possible, it’s so unlikely that we shall proceed on trust.

A bogus notification is unlikely if it appears after rebooting.

2. Clicking "Install Now" displays the Adobe Flash Player Update progress bar. You are, by the way, still proceeding on trust. You normally must in these situations (trust that it’s really Microsoft, or Adobe) but stay observant.

3. Adobe Flash Player Update "completed successfully" dialogue.

I know, boring, isn’t it. At this stage you might return to your work. But how do you know it’s working? Do you care?

You WILL care in a few days - or tomorrow - or a month’s time - when the "Update Now" message reappears. Or a nag screen pops up at the most wrongest of moments "Restart now to complete installation of Adobe Flash Player" - by which time (days late) you’re experiencing déjà vu, having probably forgotten the update.

Finish here, or continue?

It won’t hurt to continue. You will find the Flash Player test page and not only confirm most definitely the player works, you will also discover the Shockwave Player and find that it probably does not!

What is Shockwave? It’s a multimedia player that preceded Flash. Both players can exist as web browser plugins to simplify, or ‘ubiquitise’ installations. Shockwave authoring tools offer more powerful toolsets, so it won’t be going away in the foreseeable.

 

4. Search for the Adobe Flash and Shockwave players test page:

 

 

5. Make sure you select the real deal ("adobe.com") from the SERP (Search Engine Results Page. Notice the SiteAdvisor green check icon to the right. It’s kosher!):

6. Clicking the link in the Google results from above sends you to the Adobe Flash player test page at http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/ where you can see below (partial screen shot) the failed player test just behind the dialogue. This dialogue "Internet Explorer - Security Warning" confirms the real-deal Adobe Systems "shockwave Player" is about to be updated.  The web page detected your browser was not up to date and initiated automatically the update sequence.

Now, isn’t that odd? Wasn’t this all about "Flash Player"?? Well, just accept that Shockwave and Flash are Adobe twins. Where one goes, the other goes. You rarely see the "Shockwave" update nags, but they’re just as handy. You see, we chose the "Shockwave" update link, even though Adobe called it the "Test .. Shockwave AND Flash .."   Whatever.

7. Then this happens (yawn):

8. Then this. I’m losing the plot, btw. I think it’s still doing the Shockwave thingy:

Select a language and OK you way to oblivion. 

9. Oh, look. How cunning. Just when you were screaming in agony and writhing in excruciating boredom (You just want to get your work done. Right?) Adobe try a swifty in a deal with Symantec and try to trick you into the bloody very last thing you need right now — A FRIKKIN’ NORTON SECURITY SCAN!

Make sure to UNCHECK the little tick before clicking ‘Next’:

10. In my case - and I’m sure yours will be something equally exotic - the next thing that appears is an apparently failed install - probably sulking about the Norton knockback and hoping I’ll be silly enough to start again:

 

11. Ta Da! I reloaded the page (click "refresh") and both players report success.

It’s never obvious till the end, but success means you see both Flash and Shockwave display a so-called animation. Nothing moves after they load, so to be sure, float your mouse cursor over the two player sections and some snazzy animated menus appear.

 

12. Sigh! I’m sorry I started this article.