So you installed Firefox on Windows Vista, but you’ve got the option to’t seem to get the flash plugin to install… you hit the “Install Missing Plugins” button, follow the wizard, restart Firefox, and it’s still not installed.
Annoying!
Instead of going through this repeatedly without any luck, you’ve got the option to simply plant the plugin manually with a couple of steps.
Note that it’s possible for you to use this manual method to install any plugin, not just Flash.Install Flash Plugin Manually on VistaThe first thing you’ll need to do is manually download the plugin file.
You should be able to right-press this link and choose “Save Link As…” from the menu.http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/xpi/current/flashplayer-win.xpiOnce you have the file downloaded, rename the file with a .zip extension:
You should be able to double-press the file to open it up, since .xpi files are really just renamed .zip files.
Now you’ll need to copy two files from that directory into one of two directories, depending on whether you want to set up the plugin globally for all users, or just for your user account.
The two files you’ll need to copy are these:
Install for All UsersNavigate down to the following path in Windows Explorer to find the Firefox installation directory:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins
Note that if you are running on 64-bit Vista the path will have (x86) like the next screenshot, or if you are using Portable Firefox you’ll have to find your Firefox installation folder and navigate to the plugins directory there.
Now paste those two files that you extracted into this directory (You’ll be prompted by UAC), restart Firefox and you are done.Install for Your User Account OnlyIf you don’t have administrator access to your machine, or you simply want to install for only your account, you’ve got the option to browse to the following path:
%APPDATA%\Mozilla
Once you are in that directory, create a new directory called Plugins if it doesn’t already exist:
And then paste the two files into the Plugins directory.
Restart Firefox, and you are done.Verifying InstallationYou can check that that the plugin is loaded and turned on by typing about:plugins into the address bar:
Of course the simpler test would be to just load up whatever page you were on before you started troubleshooting.
=)
