How to remove the Macromedia Flash Player ActiveX control

Users might want to uninstall the Flash Player for several reasons:

• To ensure a clean upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Flash Player
• To test player detection schemes (see Additional Information for details)
• To test or fix a possible failed Flash Player installation

To uninstall the Flash Player:

You can uninstall the Flash Player using the Flash Player Uninstaller, or you can remove the Flash Player manually.

To uninstall using the Flash Player Uninstaller (recommended)

Refer to How to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX Control (TechNote 14157).

To manually uninstall the ActiveX control (Flash Players 6 and earlier only)

1. Quit Internet Explorer, if it is open.
2. From the Start menu, choose Search > Files or Folders and search for flash.ocx (if you are removing Macromedia Flash Player 6) or swflash.ocx (if you are removing Macromedia Flash Player 5 or earlier).
   
   Note: The name of the ActiveX control changed with version 6 to "flash.ocx". See Windows XP error installing Macromedia Flash Player ActiveX control (TechNote 16178) for details.
3. Note the path to the file. The path is typically:
   C:\Windows\System\Macromed\Flash on Windows 95, 98 or WinME;
   C:\WinNT\System32\Macromed\Flash on Windows NT or 2000;
   C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash on Windows XP.
   
   If more than one copy of the file is found, note the paths to all copies of the file.
4. Select Start > Run.
5. In the Open field, enter the following command:
   
   regsvr32 {path}\{filename} /u
   
   Replace {path} with the path to the filename noted from step 3.
   Replace {filename} with thefilename noted from step 2.
   
   For example, if you're uninstalling the Macromedia Flash Player 6 ActiveX control on Windows 2000, the path would be:
   
   regsvr32 C:\WinNT\System32\Macromed\Flash\flash.ocx /u
6. Click OK. You should get a RegSvr32 dialog box stating that the executable succeeded. If it failed, double check the path and file name for your system.
7. Select Start > Find Files or Folders and enterflash.ocx (if you are removing Macromedia Flash Player 6) or swflash.ocx (if you are removing Macromedia Flash Player 5).
8. Right-click on the found file and choose Delete from the context (right-click) menu. If more than one copy of the file exists, delete each one.
9. Search for swflash.inf using Windows Find utility (Start > Find > Files or Folders). This file is used during the installation of the Macromedia Flash Player ActiveX control.
10. Right-click on the file and choose Delete.
11. Restart the machine.

To reinstall the Flash Player ActiveX control

Download the latest version from the Adobe Flash Player Download Center.

Note: The Windows Run program saves each command used in a pop-up menu which makes it easy to uninstall the control for future tests.

Additional information

For information on Adobe Flash Player detection, please refer toHow to detect the presence of the Flash Player (TechNote 14526).

Refer to System Requirements for a list of supported browsers and platforms.

If you are a Flash developer and require a previous version of Macromedia Flash Player for testing detection schemes, refer to Archived Macromedia Flash Players available for testing purposes (TechNote 14266).