Installing Flash Player Plugin on Firefox without having Administrator Access or Premissions

Last updated on Mon, 2012-07-16 09:14. Originally submitted by fabio on 2007-02-19 16:32.

UPDATE: The following guide, originally written for Firefox 2, has been used successfully on Firefox 3, 3.5, 3.6, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Users of Firefox Portable edition (same versions) also have been successful using this guide.

The Windows computers available at my University permits login only by autenticated users (students) who don't have Administrator access and permissions.

Installing software on those PC is then not possible.

Recently they finally installed Firefox 2 but without the Flash plugins, which is absolutly useful/needed.

I then tryed to install the Flash Player using the "standard" way (click on the missing plugin link then install the plugin..). However without administrator plugins it was not possible to install.

Then I started doing some tests trying to install the plugin manually. Now I have it installed and working perfectly!

This is how I managed to install it without administrator permissions:

  1. Download this ZIP archive to your hard disk.
  2. Extract the file in the archive. You can use any program capable of opening .zip files (WinZip, WinRAR or the free and great 7-zip). There are also websites which can uncompress archives: wobzip.org.
  3. Copy the file NPSWF32.dll to %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Plugins\
    • %APPDATA% is not a real folder. It's an alias. By inserting it in your windows explorer address bar, you'll be redirected to the real folder which holds your applications profiles and settings. The location of this folder depends on various setting that's why we need the alias and not an absolute path.
    • You can open this folder simply choosing "Start → Run → Type in %APPDATA% → OK".
    • In case you don't have a Plugins folder you can create one and place your files there.
  4. Restart Firefox
  5. Enjoy your flash websites!

Reference:
Profile folder on MozillaZine Knowledge Base.
Installing Flash in Portable Firefox with no installer at AcidLabs.org Blog.

Posted in:

latest flash plugin

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2013-05-12 18:58.

Hi Fabio,
Thanks for the dll file and good instructions for installation of older version of flash, worked great but now it's outdated. Would you be kind to update the file with the dll download and put ver 11.7 in it? thanks, Emilia

When I downloaded this,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2013-04-07 19:44.

When I downloaded this, Firefox keeps freezing up on videos. Please advise. Thanks.

i dont have teacher password

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2013-02-21 01:31.

i dont have teacher password

This tutorial rocks, I feel

Submitted by Carl (not verified) on Tue, 2013-02-19 09:35.

This tutorial rocks, I feel like I am back in school again. These instructions worked in my browser, I wonder if it will get easier for me now to get the case study help I found here. I've been searching for it for so long.

thanx

Submitted by naeem (not verified) on Fri, 2013-01-18 11:57.

thanks a lot

FF 16.0.2

Submitted by USER (not verified) on Fri, 2012-11-02 09:01.

Hi Fabio and thanks for this useful page.
After copying the said file (NPSWF32.dll) to the appropriate folder, FF is continuously hanging where I have to restart it and it happens again even in safe mode.
What could be the problem, please?

Thanks again

Doesn't work either

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2012-11-07 10:40.

Same problem here. Hangs Firefox 16.0.2.

Nico

My findings, Under windows 7

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2012-10-16 03:20.

My findings,

Under windows 7 (64 bit) with ff 8.0.1

This process (even using a renamed *.dll from Adobe) failed for me.

For those that think ff has crashed, it hasn't. Simply open task manager -> processes, click the plugin sandbox process "plugin-container.exe", then "End Process" and ff will continue as normal.

It worked! Perfect Thanks

Submitted by Djoni (not verified) on Thu, 2012-10-04 09:43.

It worked!

Perfect

Thanks very much my bro

thanks it really worked...!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2012-09-25 15:29.

thanks it really worked...!!, i didn't have the plugins folder inside the mozilla but later when i made the folder with the name plugins and coped the NPSWF32.dll file by following the link that you've provided..it really worked out .... lots and lots of thanks....!!!

Thanks

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2012-09-25 13:48.

Thanks it worked!

hi

Submitted by thompson (not verified) on Mon, 2012-08-13 04:20.

hi

sariahboo can tell you anything

Submitted by sariah (not verified) on Sun, 2012-08-12 06:46.

Come talk to me about your problems

Im using FireFox 14 and its

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2012-07-31 12:31.

Im using FireFox 14 and its not working, FireFox freeze when I try open flash sites

Did you find the work around

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2012-08-22 20:12.

Did you find the work around for it, not working for me either ... I even changed the registry entry for mozillaplugins and flashplayerplugins path to where the dll is copied ... still it freezes and doesn't launch the plugin .

Thanks

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2012-07-17 16:35.

thanks worked great (was able to get the 99.9 virgin radio listen live to play at my coop position(gets boring so silent need some noise while designing in 3d)

Hi! THX for ur job. I have a

Submitted by Spawn (not verified) on Thu, 2012-07-26 11:51.

Hi!
THX for ur job.

I have a little problem. I use firefox 14.0.1 version and ur old flash (this work perfect ). But I want use this new version, after change for new, and restart firefox, by flash site freezed the ff. PLS, help me.

( sorry for my english )

Download link broken?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2012-07-14 17:48.

404 error for me... reup please?

the link is fine.. it only

Submitted by fabio on Sun, 2012-07-15 00:59.

the link is fine.. it only requests for confirmation on download.. do that and it should work..

404 here too

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2012-07-16 03:40.

File 404s when I confirm download. :(

Link fixed. Thanks for

Submitted by fabio on Mon, 2012-07-16 09:14.

Link fixed. Thanks for reporting the issue.

Works fine - but...

Submitted by VNV (not verified) on Tue, 2012-06-19 10:14.

Hello!
This works fine, but the Fire.fm (1.4.14) Add-on (Last.fm) doesen't work anymore with the NPSWF32.dll....

Sorry, can't help you much

Submitted by fabio on Tue, 2012-06-19 10:37.

Sorry, can't help you much with this issue...

Thank you very much for the

Submitted by waterproof camera (not verified) on Thu, 2012-06-14 16:35.

Thank you very much for the tutorial.
Works awesome !
Work fine on 3.6.

Sweet! Works perfectly! YO

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2012-06-11 13:39.

Sweet! Works perfectly! YO

any help please, not allowed

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2012-06-10 13:13.

any help please, not allowed to view c drive only if i type "C:\" on any browser (IE and Firefox) i wanna play tanki online. please help.
thnx

i am a student in the

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2012-06-10 13:10.

i am a student in the boarding house and it does not allow me to see
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Plugins\ when i type it in

you just changed my entire

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2012-06-04 18:35.

you just changed my entire experience at work. Thank you good sir, and goodnight.

do you have the .dll for

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2012-06-04 11:16.

do you have the .dll for adobe flash player 11? thanks

sorry my bad...the zip is

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2012-06-04 11:17.

sorry my bad...the zip is version 11...thanks

Thx

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2012-05-31 13:58.

Merci beaucoup!!

Moh from Paris

NICE

Submitted by André Eidler (not verified) on Sat, 2012-05-26 11:36.

Every year I come back here and read the same useful post. Thanks a lot for your work.

MIRACLE WORKER!

Submitted by SS (not verified) on Fri, 2012-05-25 12:07.

Thanks so much for finding a way of installing flash without admin rights - you are a lifesaver!

I previously used the old file when installing flash but my outdated version was no longer working - so came straight back to this blog to find a newer version of flash to download!

Many thanks :D

You are a MotherF***ing beast

Submitted by HybridAngelus (not verified) on Wed, 2012-05-09 19:17.

Dude you helped me out alot making this tut msg me if you ever need help and thx because im trying to build a book aka a secret to schools on hot to get the stuff you want and how to use and manage it without being caught.

Thanks a lot. Working like a

Submitted by spike (not verified) on Wed, 2012-05-02 09:11.

Thanks a lot. Working like a charm on my job lappy with FF12!!

Regards :)

Cannot extract the ZIP...

Submitted by RejZoR (not verified) on Thu, 2012-04-26 15:34.

Not sure why, but i can't extract the NPSWF32.zip. Not with 7zip, not with Windows unzipper and not with Universal Extractor.

OMG

Submitted by Sophie (not verified) on Thu, 2012-04-26 13:16.

You're totally awesome! I tried so many things, and this one, simple as it was, did it!! You ROCK. Thank you SO MUCH!

*Installing and Running Applications Without Admin Rights*

Submitted by Christian Hernandez (not verified) on Fri, 2012-04-20 02:20.

If anyone want to know how to install and run programs without admin rights here how (some applications such as Google Chrome may not work):
1. Open Up a Windows Explorer.
2. Open up your C: drive and search "SYSTEM32" (NO SPACES).
3. Search for the folder "catroot2" and double click it to open it up.
4. Look for the second folder with the braces and open it up.
5. Create a new folder and name it anything.
6. Install all applications in that folder.

*A good website to download portable applications is http://portableapps.com (Google Chrome and other applications I said won't work can be downloaded here and will work, just remember run the installer in the folder I told you to make and to install them to that folder.)

Hope this helped some people.

hhtp://portableapps.com is

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2012-11-19 14:21.

hhtp://portableapps.com is where I get my Firefox from, with the DLL it brought to life my browser again, stupid work forcing me to use IE. Thanks a Bunch, maybe then can package the updated plugin with the portable version in the future.

*Installing and Running Applications Without Admin Rights*

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2012-05-01 18:07.

It doesn't work access denied when I tried to create.Any other way?

google

Submitted by Anonssymous (not verified) on Wed, 2012-07-18 12:48.

google

YOU ARE THE BEST

Submitted by Christian Hernandez (not verified) on Fri, 2012-04-20 02:10.

Thank you so much for this, it helped me a lot!

thanks

Submitted by AHTESHAM (not verified) on Fri, 2012-04-13 09:29.

Its really work...

Thanks a lot................

Wow, surprisingly worked!!

Submitted by Rayna (not verified) on Wed, 2012-04-11 07:28.

Thanks so much for your info.

It helps people like me who really desperate to use adobe flash player whereby my it person don't want to reinstall this feature after reformatting my pc..
^.^

GREAT

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2012-04-04 00:51.

Thanks very much mate,,,,you're greattttt

holly molly

Submitted by no one (not verified) on Sun, 2012-04-01 15:49.

u r gd daaaaaaamn good tnx it works like magic

TOOOO COOOL

Submitted by Shabbir (not verified) on Mon, 2012-03-19 14:42.

I LOVE YOU FOR THIS SOLUTION...

You're the best! It works

Submitted by PasserBy (not verified) on Fri, 2012-03-02 00:49.

You're the best! It works like magic and your instructions are easy to follow. Thank you very much. It's very helpful.

Your Great Man!

Submitted by Gee (not verified) on Wed, 2012-02-29 05:42.

Dude your the greatest

Works great.

Submitted by leon187 (not verified) on Wed, 2012-02-22 11:51.

Thanks for tutorial, this works great on firefox portable.

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