Macromedia Flash Player is a popular utility used by programmers today to develop interactive websites. Flash Player is embedded in web pages with the help of ActiveX controls. These controls enable programmers to include those features and functionalities in your Internet Explorer Web pages that are not included in it by default. Flash.ocx is the ActiveX file used by Flash Player 6 and swflash.ocx is the ActiveX file used by earlier versions.
Why do I need to uninstall Flash Player?
Although useful, you might want to uninstall your current Flash Player for the following reasons:
- You keep receiving the error message: “The flash component flash.ocx is missing”
- You want to upgrade your current Flash Player and want to perform a clean install.
- You want to fix problems with your current Flash Player.
How to uninstall Flash Player 6 or earlier
Listed below are the steps to manually remove Macromedia Flash Player Version 6 or earlier:
- Close all Internet Explorer windows open on your computer.
- Open Start menu and select Search.
- Select All Files and Folders and then perform a search for flash.ocx file. (If you want to remove a version earlier than Flash 6, then search for the swflash.ocx file.)
- Write down the filename and its path.
- Next, open Start menu again and select Run.
- Here, type the following command (using the filename and path you wrote down earlier):
regsvr32 Fullpath\filename /u
For instance, if you are removing Flash 6 from Windows XP installed on the C drive of your hard disk, then the command you will use would be similar to:
regsvr32 C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash \flash.ocx /u - Select OK and then click OK to confirm the prompt displayed by the Regsvr32 command. If you receive an error message, check your command for the correct path and file name.
- After you have unregistered the Flash file, perform a search for the following files and delete them. If you get multiple copies of the same file then delete all of them.
- enterflash.ocx (for Flash 6) or swflash.ocx (for versions earlier than Flash 6)
- swflash.inf (This file is used by the Macromedia Flash Player ActiveX control installation process.)
- Restart your PC.
Automatic Flash Player Removal Tool
You can also download the Flash removal tool and run it on your system to uninstall Flash Player. However, before you do finish reading below…
What you can do to ensure a complete uninstall
After the uninstallation is complete, you can download the most recent version of Flash player and install it on your system without any errors. However, before you reinstall, we recommend that you use a registry cleaner tool such as RegGenie to scan the registry for any orphan files left behind by Flash Player and remove them. By doing this, you ensure a clean uninstall and are more likely to have an error-free installation of the new version of Flash Player.
Flash Player is commonly embedded in websites using ActiveX controls to make them interactive. If you are frequented by Flash.ocx errors or you are unable to upgrade to a newer Flash Player version, then you will have to uninstall the current version. You can remove Flash Player either manually or by downloading the Flash Player Removal tool. Whichever method you choose, it is recommended that you use a registry cleaner tool to scan the registry and remove any remnants of the uninstalled software.
