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

Last updated on Tue, 2010-02-02 16:43. 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, Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6. Users of Firefox Portable edition (versions 3, 3.5 and 3.6) 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 the XPI archive of the Flash Player Plugin to your hard disk (right click on the download link then "Save link as.."). XPI archives are only ZIP files containing the files used by the plugins.
  2. So you can safely rename the file you just downloaded, called flashplayer-win.xpi, into flashplayer-win.zip (you are changing its extension from .xpi to .zip)
  3. Extract the files 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.
  4. Copy the files flashplayer.xpt and 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.
  5. Restart Firefox
  6. Enjoy your flash websites!

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

Thank you, man! You rock x)

Submitted by FDB7 (not verified) on Fri, 2010-02-05 16:31.

Thank you, man! You rock x)

Nice - thanks for the post.

Submitted by faceplant (not verified) on Wed, 2010-02-03 23:01.

Nice - thanks for the post.

Greaat !!!!

Submitted by Fred (not verified) on Tue, 2010-02-02 15:01.

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

works like a breeze

Submitted by Patrick (not verified) on Tue, 2010-02-02 09:55.

great advice - works like a breeze on Firefox 3.6 !

This works! Thank you so

Submitted by brilleaben (not verified) on Sun, 2010-01-31 02:06.

This works! Thank you so much! It's important that you place the files in a folder called plugins and not just in extensions.

Cheers!

Submitted by AB (not verified) on Thu, 2010-01-28 11:53.

worked a treat. Thanks mate!

it is not working with any of

Submitted by Sen (not verified) on Mon, 2010-01-25 09:50.

it is not working with any of the flash web sites..
For example :
http://waterlife.nfb.ca/
may i know why??

Well, it means that the

Submitted by fabio on Mon, 2010-01-25 10:56.

Well, it means that the plugin has not been installed correctly. Please follow again the instructions and provide more details of your problem.

Thanks,

FV

maybe you can also try tweaking DivX webplayer like this???

Submitted by Jaja (not verified) on Thu, 2010-01-21 20:14.

first of all, thank you for this (re flash player) helpful instruction.

maybe you could also try this one: Installing DivX web player on Firefox or IE without having Administrator Access or Premissions.
hopefully you could tweak it as well like this Flash thing that you did. it would really help us a lot.
coz watch-movie sites like stagevu.com needs DivX web player and i tried installing it but needs admin priv. please help!
send me an email once you've figure it out! thanks so much!!!

-Jaja

Works just as he says even on

Submitted by Mike (not verified) on Thu, 2010-01-21 08:50.

Works just as he says even on the latest Firefox 3.5.7

yes, it worked

Submitted by mutlu (not verified) on Wed, 2010-01-20 16:48.

You are awesome. Thank you very much.

A very helpful article that

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2010-01-14 21:39.

A very helpful article that helped me out as well, thanks. The bad news however, is that the URL for the xpi on Macromedia’s website currently (2010-01-14) does not provide the latest Flash version, but the outdated 2009-07-17 version, or 10.0.32.18 instead. I could not find a URL (on Macromedia’s or any other website) that does provide the latest version in zip format, so as a workaround I would advise to copy both npswf32.dll and flashplayer.xpt from another pc (on which the Flash installer file was used) containing the latest version. They should be located in C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash.

Thanks for pointing this

Submitted by fabio on Fri, 2010-01-15 19:35.

Thanks for pointing this out.

I'm sorry but I don't think it would be legal to distribute files from the Flash install archive without permission from Adobe.

I'll just wait to see if the people at Adobe will update the link I'm using and look for a solution if it doesn't get updated.

Thank you soooo much this was

Submitted by Zamren (not verified) on Wed, 2010-01-13 19:41.

Thank you soooo much this was so awesome! Kept getting the can't install flash because I wasn't an admin and this worked perfectly!

Cannot Copy Files Due To AntiVirus

Submitted by niceguysean (not verified) on Wed, 2010-01-13 17:55.

Great solution, but for me unfortunately my antivirus (works, so cannot disable) will not allow me to copy these files to the %APPDATA% or Plugins folder. I tried renaming the extension, but still the files were blocked.

Anyone any other ideas?

You might want to install

Submitted by fabio on Wed, 2010-01-13 22:57.

You might want to install Firefox Portable to any directory you have write permissions. Then install the plugin within the Plugins folder into the Firefox Portable installation.

I don't know if this will work for you but you can surely give it a try.

Worked perfectly! THANKS!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2010-01-13 16:02.

Worked perfectly! THANKS!!!

thanks a lot......

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2010-01-13 01:35.

thanks a lot, now i can play in our cyber library because of your plugins....
your the MAN....

Thanks a million! Worked

Submitted by Aladdin (not verified) on Sun, 2010-01-10 20:10.

Thanks a million! Worked perfectly!

Thanks

Submitted by Devi Mahapatra (not verified) on Sun, 2010-01-10 13:59.

Thanks. Great content. It's magic.

Yeah

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2010-01-07 16:14.

(evil grin)
I followed the instructions and now I have the plug in working like a charm.

i couldnt open the flash

Submitted by jingwah (not verified) on Mon, 2010-01-04 05:25.

i couldnt open the flash player file. it seems that i have to install winrar but dont have the privileges.

As I said in the article, you

Submitted by fabio on Mon, 2010-01-04 08:45.

As I said in the article, you can use an online zip tool like http://www.wobzip.org/ .. With that site you'll be able to open the archive and get the files inside. Remember to rename the file to an .zip file before uploading to the website.

It works!

Submitted by MachICE (not verified) on Sat, 2010-01-02 01:38.

Your are the man!

I have installed firefox and then followed your instructions and all works.

One note, I have copied the files stright to the plugin folder as cld find APPDATA%.

Thanks

Genious!!

Submitted by KaOzGrUnT (not verified) on Wed, 2009-12-30 16:03.

You are the Man!!!

that was cool......really

Submitted by sacy (not verified) on Tue, 2009-12-29 16:26.

that was cool......really thanx...keep d good work....

You my friend just ended

Submitted by Siff (not verified) on Mon, 2009-12-28 20:28.

You my friend just ended boredom at work!

Brilliant thanks for sharing

Submitted by Sushanth (not verified) on Sun, 2009-12-27 18:50.

Brilliant thanks for sharing this ....

Thank You

Submitted by ashis (not verified) on Thu, 2009-12-24 23:41.

Brilliant Idea !!!!!!!!
Keep it UP.

Check once plese

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2009-12-24 11:08.

Please check once given File is not extracting, I think there is file has been corrupted.
thanks!!!

Thankyou!

Submitted by Severin (not verified) on Thu, 2009-12-24 01:07.

Hey mate,

Thanks heaps for this post. Saved me a heap of time and stuffing around. Really appreciate it!

--Sev

Genious

Submitted by omz (not verified) on Wed, 2009-12-23 13:23.

This is excellent - Thank You so much
Worked a treat first time

I followed the directions. I

Submitted by Yup (not verified) on Tue, 2009-12-22 20:43.

I followed the directions. I did have to create the Plugins folder in my Mozilla folder.

Videos requiring Flash 10 work now! Thanks!

thanks for your reply. I

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2009-12-22 06:22.

thanks for your reply. I don't have the privileges to install flash player. I had it installes but something went wrong and it didn't work any more. so I followed all the steps you said but it still doesn't work.

You could try this

Submitted by fabio on Tue, 2009-12-22 09:59.

I installed firefox portable

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2009-12-22 11:32.

I installed firefox portable and added those 2 files to FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox\plugins\. there was already a file there: npnul32.dll. still no result:-(

mmm.. I'm pretty out of

Submitted by fabio on Tue, 2009-12-22 11:54.

mmm.. I'm pretty out of advices..

You might want to look under tools->addons->plugins and check if Flash is listed and enabled.

You might also want to create a new firefox profile.

I don't know what else to suggest.

hi again. look...when I don't

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2009-12-23 13:26.

hi again. look...when I don't have those 2 files copied, i get messages like "this site needs flash player". when I copy the files, shockwave flash is added to add-ons--plugins and no messages are shown when I visit the same site but the page is blank. Any idea about that?

Ok, so Flash Player is

Submitted by fabio on Tue, 2009-12-29 00:31.

Ok, so Flash Player is enabled and should just work.
I'm suspecting that something is broken on the network level.. Probably you have some firewall or proxy which filters flash files.

Would you try this? Save this file to your computer (right click on the link then save as). Then try to open index.swf with Firefox (you can simply drag and drop the file into Firefox).

oh...my...GOD....it's

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2009-12-29 06:58.

oh...my...GOD....it's working! thanks a zillion times. what was that page anyway?

Just a random flash based

Submitted by fabio on Tue, 2009-12-29 11:20.

Just a random flash based webpage I found on the internet.

I have installed firefox

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2009-12-21 13:55.

I have installed firefox 3.5.6 and did whatever you said but it won't work! can you help me plz.

If you are able to install

Submitted by fabio on Mon, 2009-12-21 23:25.

If you are able to install Firefox you probably have enough privileges to install flash in the standard way.. Just browse any flash powered website (eg: any video on youtube.com) and Firefox will prompt to install the plug-in.

Instead if you don't have enough privileges you can use my procedure. But I need more informations on where did you stuck or what problem did have following my procedure. Please give me more details on what you did.

thank uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Submitted by pirateflint (not verified) on Sun, 2009-12-20 07:07.

thanks alot dude...it works

you sir is awesome!!

Submitted by Jimmy (not verified) on Sat, 2009-12-19 19:15.

you sir is awesome!!

Thanks thanks thanks

Submitted by Nilofar (not verified) on Sat, 2009-12-19 07:54.

You are the best....thank u soooo much....this was the best tip ever..muuahh

Simply awesome!

Submitted by reed1 (not verified) on Tue, 2009-12-15 05:00.

Simply awesome!

Genius

Submitted by Tron (not verified) on Thu, 2009-12-10 20:21.

That's awesome.

thanks

Submitted by pepsi man (not verified) on Thu, 2009-12-10 08:32.

thanks and have a can of Pepsi :D lol!!!

Awsome!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2009-12-08 21:30.

Thank you soooooo much! I had to deformat my harddrive due to a virus and then I couldn't install Flash but your guide solved it for me! AWSOME!!!!

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