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:

You're a life saver, THANK

Submitted by Robert Salaam (not verified) on Wed, 2010-10-27 14:59.

You're a life saver, THANK YOU!!!!

My Firefox going to hang

Submitted by powerNET (not verified) on Tue, 2010-10-26 12:53.

Why after i copy the 2 files then i restart my firefox a couple of seconds my firefox not working and hang.

please need your help.

Are you running 64bit version

Submitted by fabio on Tue, 2010-10-26 13:48.

Are you running 64bit version of Windows 7 or Vista?

Please help, how am I going

Submitted by kamote (not verified) on Fri, 2010-10-22 18:43.

Please help, how am I going to do that in Vista (OS) and I'm using Firefox Portable (version 3)? Thank you in advanced!

Read the comments below..

Submitted by fabio on Fri, 2010-10-22 23:41.

Read the comments below.. other people did that and there are instructions for that!

So Useful !

Submitted by Midtown Atlanta (not verified) on Fri, 2010-10-22 02:30.

Thank my lucky stars I have never run in to this particular problem. Just in case, though, I'm going to e-mail your URL to myself so I can have GMail archive it in the cloud. Just please don't ever pull the plug on your web site, eh?

Thank you! Works good on FF

Submitted by tata_lor (not verified) on Thu, 2010-10-21 08:14.

Thank you! Works good on FF 3.6

thank you

Submitted by tuone (not verified) on Thu, 2010-10-14 12:46.

thumbs up. really helped me out

SAVED MY WEEK

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2010-10-13 21:31.

Thanks!!!

Thanksssssssssss

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2010-10-12 06:59.

it worked....to good..post if u have ne other worth like dis

This is perfect!! Thanks a

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2010-10-02 05:40.

This is perfect!! Thanks a lot!

awesome

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2010-10-01 09:22.

thanks... awesome

Its works

Submitted by trafik (not verified) on Tue, 2010-09-28 23:27.

Hi, It works like charm. Could you help provide a solution to install the debug version of flash player 10 in firefox as well?thx again. kameralar burada Mobese canlı olarak izlenebilir.

Admin edit: Removed spam looking links. Linking is tolerated only for personal websites.

Be careful if you are using McAfee AV

Submitted by Ramesh (not verified) on Tue, 2010-09-28 13:29.

I tried the mentioned suggestions and still could not get it to work until I disabled "Access Protection" in the "McAfee VirusScan Console".
I quickly copied the files and restarted Firefox and voila! it worked.
My company has McAfee re-enabling some features after a few minutes if a user disables them, therefore I had to copy the files quickly.
Many thanks for the solution.

Ramesh

It worked on firefox

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2010-09-28 10:30.

It worked on firefox portable, copy the files mentioned to \FirefoxPortable\Data\plugins

Not Working

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2010-10-26 15:11.

I Keep getting an error message

how to stop that

Thanks a lot I am using

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2010-10-14 11:31.

Thanks a lot I am using portable firefox and your comment helped me.

Thanks a TON

Thx mate! You rock!

Submitted by Sapa (not verified) on Tue, 2010-09-28 08:24.

Thx mate! You rock!

thanks. worked great!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 2010-09-25 21:33.

thanks. worked great!

It Worked

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2010-09-24 20:08.

Superb Fix. Good Job !! Thank you.

Not much of a 'geek' myself,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2010-09-20 16:26.

Not much of a 'geek' myself, I did get it to work tho...

Thanks a mill. m8.

Works

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2010-09-20 10:22.

Great!! It works fine.

Access Denied :(

Submitted by ArasH (not verified) on Wed, 2010-09-15 08:15.

Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/xpi/current/flashplayer-win.xpi" on this server.

Reference #18.777df5c3.1284534799.2159376c

=((

Filtered ...

Submitted by Majid (not verified) on Sun, 2010-10-17 17:35.

Dear Arash,

Due to your location IRAN , Unfortunately it is filtered from adobe group .
Use antifilter like UltraSurf .

Goodluck .

It works on a USB Device

Submitted by Angelau5 (not verified) on Wed, 2010-09-22 14:54.

If you have a USB key, you can download the portable version of Firefox and it works perfectly ;)

its great

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2010-09-14 07:44.

unblivable its working ...thanks

Awesome

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2010-09-10 10:23.

Thanks for this tip, it works ! You're awesome !!! :D

Wow!! you are great!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2010-09-07 23:15.

Wow!! you are great!

Saved my day

Submitted by AJ (not verified) on Tue, 2010-09-07 15:46.

I'm stuck in a hotel with my company laptop. Couldn't update flashplayer. My admin din't want me to give the password. He would update the player when I am back in my office. I am stuck here for 2 weeks. But because of your link it works now !

Thx

AJ

From: Mohsen-Iran

Submitted by mohsen (not verified) on Mon, 2010-09-06 10:43.

Thank you very very much.
That worked very good.

I like it!!

Submitted by Gogol (not verified) on Sat, 2010-09-04 03:00.

Thanks Mate...
Your INFO is real good..

Cheers

Not working...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2010-09-02 13:22.

When I try to download it, there pops plugins-screen and it says "Firefox failed to install file from http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/xpi/current/flashplayer...
Cause: installation script? (text was not in english and I don't know it in english)couldn't be found. -204". Am I just stupid or is there something wrong?

Help for a Mac

Submitted by dina (not verified) on Mon, 2010-10-25 02:07.

I'm getting the "-204" script error as well and I can't get past it. Please help...I've been at this for over and hour.
Thanks

You shuold save the link, not

Submitted by fabio on Mon, 2010-10-25 09:28.

You shuold save the link, not directly clicking.. Click with your right mouse button (maybe you should press the Apple button then click) and then use save as or similar.

Sorry

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2010-09-02 13:37.

Never mind got it working now. Thank you so much for this.

works!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2010-08-31 16:24.

as for me, it's exactly the same with the computers of my university... stupid shi*...

but your advice is great! easy to understand! an working!

Thanks so much :)

Works in Firefox 4.0b3

Submitted by dreyco (not verified) on Tue, 2010-08-24 19:42.

Works in Firefox 4.0b3. You will however need to navigate to: %APPDATA%\Mozilla and then create a plugins folder there.

Install flash player 10.1 in Firefox 4.0b4 without admin rights

Submitted by Florisz (not verified) on Mon, 2010-09-06 08:40.

In addition to dreyco for Firefox 4.0b4 Portable edition:
I pasted the files in the folder: App - DefaultData - plugin
The other folder: Data - plugins doesn't work anymore for Firefox 4 portable.

Correction: It doesn't work

Submitted by Florisz (not verified) on Tue, 2010-09-07 12:40.

Correction:
It doesn't work for flashplayer 10.1. Or the download files are older versions of the flasplayer. I realy need: 10.1.82
Anybody any tip for the Firefox 4b4 portable edition from portable apps?

Good news. Thanks for your

Submitted by fabio on Wed, 2010-08-25 00:00.

Good news. Thanks for your contribution.

Thank you!

Submitted by Mike (not verified) on Mon, 2010-08-23 18:08.

Your directions were easy to follow and effective. Between Flash now working correctly in Firefox and OpenOfficePortable, the crippled systems at my school are now useful to me. Thanks!

awesome!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2010-08-19 20:32.

You rock! You saved me about 3 days worth of trying to get my system admin to install flash.

Works!!! Thanks

Submitted by Amit (not verified) on Wed, 2010-08-18 08:05.

Works!!! Thanks

Fantastic work!!!!!! Thank

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2010-08-16 15:40.

Fantastic work!!!!!! Thank you

That i s great! Really GENIUS!

Submitted by Bin (not verified) on Sun, 2010-08-15 16:47.

Submitted by Paul (not verified) on Tue, 2010-06-22 17:22.

Really Thanks!!
You haven't no idea how many hours I spend to solve this trouble,
very helpfull!
It is the most essential program for a PC to use. Apppreciate and thankful to you

problem solved

Submitted by ry (not verified) on Wed, 2010-08-11 14:48.

wow! thanks a lot for a very wonderful post. it's really a big help. thanks again.

WOW,GREAT....

Submitted by SATHIS (not verified) on Mon, 2010-08-09 13:53.

YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB....CONTINUE....THEN I WANT TO KNOW ONETHING..HOW TO HIDE DESKTOP WHICH IS SEEN BY THE ADMINISTRATOR WHEN I AM IN BROWSING AS "USER"..THEY ARE SEEING IN SERVER AND CLOSES MY PAGES...PLEASE TELL ME.....

good luck

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2010-08-30 23:05.

the system admin will be using remote access program of some sorts. you're most likely screwed. if it's possible the only way I can see would be to block the port that the program uses to access your terminal, you are on a network that has been built ground-up by the powers that be, the best thing you can do is surf for random stuff at home...

Brilliant

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2010-07-29 22:46.

The Bane of system administrators everywhere!

You are a genius !! !

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2010-07-29 19:09.

Thanks a lot ! It works perfectly ! You are a genius. Thanks for this great post !

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