webbrowser control can't run flash.

Question

Hi,

 

Not sure if this is the best place to post this question, but here we go.

 

I am using the webbrowser control on C# app. I am trying to use 2008 Express edition (just moved to it ) and Vista home edtion--sorry don't have $$$ to buy the expensive stuff. Hopefully my issue is not related to the free software.

 

Now, I try to load url with flash content in it through the webbrowser control. Yet, it simply doesn't work. I installed flash9 but it complains about not finding flash.ocx. Actually the app simply puts annoying "x" but when I close devstudio it informs about this.

 

I googled around a bunch of posts and tried a bunch of things but none of them work. Most of the posts I've read seemed old and/or geared towards XP.

 

I did a search for *.ocx on my computer (although flash 9 is installed because the iexplorer works fine) and did not find any file called alike.  I believed flash9 does not use these names anymore. Not sure though.

 

Anyway, I am sort of stuck. And wonder if anyone has had this problem and has a solution that is up to date.

 

thx!

Answer 1

Hi gmmo,

As far as I know, if the Internet explorer in your machine can play the flash video, then the “WebBrowser” control in .Net framework can also do this, so please make sure the IE in your machine works fine with the flash ActiveX control.

If the “Internet explorer” fails to work with flash video, you can download and install the Flash Player 10 ActiveX Control from the below LINK.

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10_ax.html

Regards,

Xun

 

Answer 2

Thanks for the answer but you are wrong.

 

This is exactly what is driving me crazy. The explorer plays it correctly, but the webbrowser control fails. I did install the latest flash and remove it many times. In fact some of the posts I saw suggested to use an older flash version. I tried that and it didn't work.

 

I can't believe noone has had this problem before. The webbrowser control is vastly used in many apps. Perhaps people haven't upgrate everything to the latest yet.

 

nonetheless, it still doesn't work for me.

 

any leads on how I post a bug to the microsoft guys?

 

tchau,

Gustavo.

Answer 3

Hi gmmo,

If you want to give your feedback or report a bug to Visual Studio product team, please kindly do it via the following connect.

http://connect.microsoft.com/visualstudio/

Regards,

Xun

 

Answer 4

I didn't understand what you trying to say... just a code in Visual Basic, adapted for C# ( a very similar langualge ), please Reply me with "Wrong" if I'm really wrong, here's the code:

{
If not webBrowser1.Document.ActiveXInstance = Nothing Then
   If My.Compuer.FileSystem.Find(".............ocx" Then
        MessageBox.show("Must install Adobe Flash Player to see content!")
    }
}

Just put the correnct name of the Flash .ocx file, you can find it here on XP or Vista: C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files\

---

Please vote me when I'm good, mark my thread as answer when I'm almost the best!

Answer 5

I also have the problem whereby the webbrowser control is looking for flash.ocx even though IE works perfectly well and manages to locate flash10b.ocx.

why would the web browser be attempting to use an old, generic or non-existent flash activeX control file? why woudl the settings be ANY differnt to tth regular IE ?? and most importantly, how can this be changed?

Answer 6

I have the exactly same problem and not got any solution yet. What I found actually the problem was only happened on my Window Vista machine (both sp1 & sp2). It never got problem on XP. So I believe it's a Vista bug.

Answer 7

Is anyone found resolution on flash10 playing in “WebBrowser” control in .Net framework on Windows Vista?

http://www.f-in-box.com/dotnet/download.html supports flash10.

Answer 8

I have the same problem but with some subtle difference: simple movies in old format WebBrowser CAN play but it can not play new fancy movies or smth like that. Perhaps, the old player has been installed correctly, but new player installed correctly only for regular IE.

---

Andrew

Answer 9

I had the same problem on windows 7. The problem was that the web browser used by my C# app was IE 64bit and flash doesn't currently support 64bit browsers. Try to compile the program to x86 if you are running a 64 bit OS.

Answer 10

I had the same problem, but did as Sunkish suggested: Recompile the application with x86 as target (you can do this in project settings -> Compile tab -> Advanced options -> Target CPU -> X86).

That solved the problem for me. Thanks Sunkish.

Answer 11

Has anyone successfully resolved this on Windows Server 2008? I have the problem where it loads Flash components fine in Windows 7, but once I deploy it to a Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit environment (even as an x86 .dll running under 32bit mode) it fails to load the flash components.

I have also tried to override the WebBrowser control as per (http://tiredblogger.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/flash-and-proxy-support-on-net-webbrowser-controls/) without success.

 

Any ideas?

 

Regards

 

Mark

 

Answer 12

Ditto here. Just repeated the same process to get it to work. E.g. force build for x86 rather than x64. Too bad there isn't a more verbose error message. Just a failed download box like a broken html picture link.

Answer 13

I don't think flash runs in 64 bit processes.

Answer 14

I've done this: Recompile the application with x86 as target (you can do this in project settings -> Compile tab -> Advanced options -> Target CPU -> X86). and it worked fine on 2008 RC2, vista 64bit and 7 64bit.. the updates after this did't match the version stored on the machienes, so it had to be reinstaled, but with this x86 version everythin works just fine

Answer 15

Hello gmmo,

 

Considering that many developers in this forum ask how to manipulate WebBrowser component (enabling flash, suppressing error messages, proxy support), rotate or flip images, my team has created a code sample for this frequently asked programming task in Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework. You can download the code samples at:

 

VBWebBrowserWithProxy

 

http://bit.ly/VBWebBrowserWithProxy

 

CSWebBrowserWithProxy

 

http://bit.ly/CSWebBrowserWithProxy

 

With these code samples, we hope to reduce developers’ efforts in solving the frequently asked

programming tasks. If you have any feedback or suggestions for the code samples, please email us: [e-mail].

------------

The Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework (http://1code.codeplex.com) is a free, centralized code sample library driven by developers' needs. Our goal is to provide typical code samples for all Microsoft development technologies, and reduce developers' efforts in solving typical programming tasks.

Our team listens to developers’ pains in MSDN forums, social media and various developer communities. We write code samples based on developers’ frequently asked programming tasks, and allow developers to download them with a short code sample publishing cycle. Additionally, our team offers a free code sample request service. This service is a proactive way for our developer community to obtain code samples for certain programming tasks directly from Microsoft.

Thanks

Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework

Answer 16

Hi,

I am having same problem and the suggestions of x86 as target platform and  (http://tiredblogger.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/flash-and-proxy-support-on-net-webbrowser-controls/) are not working out for me.

I have looked at the all in one code, but i only see proxy support in the sample, but there is no sample for making flash work in the web browser control. This issue is blocking us in completing one important feature for us. Any help in resolving the issue would be highly appreciated.

My platform is 64 Bit Windows Server 2003.

Thanks,

Kiran

 

Answer 17

I had the same problem, I found that installing the 64bit beta of the Adobe Flash ActiveX control solved the issue.

This should only be done on 64bit operating systems.

You can download the activeX here

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer11.html

Go to the section Flash Player 11 Beta 64-bit Installers and download either the Internet Explorer or all other browsers version, depending which you need. I used the IE version, worked first time.

Answer 18

gmmo,

 

If you are still following this thread...

 

Have you found a solution to enable the wb to display flash ?

 

It would be very helpful