What is the "flash.ocx? file used for?
Flash.ocx is a part of the Adobe Flash Player software. ?The Flash.ocx file is used by Windows in order to create flash based programs. Browsers use flash to load templates and images based on adobe flash on a website. This error pops up when the flash component is either missing or corrupt.
Softwares reporting the error are:
- All versions of Adobe Flash
Error appearing on the screen
"Could not find the file Flash.ocx
The flash component flashX.ocx is missing"
Here, X is the version of flash e.g. flash7.ocx
What should I do to fix the flash.ocx error?
Adobe Flash software is a multimedia platform which is used to display interactivity and animation on WebPages.? Adobe Flash is used to create programs and embed them on websites. Flash is commonly embedded in the ActiveX controls of the IE browser and this is how it interacts with the OS. If the interaction between the browsers fails with the flash file, flash.ocx, the above error is generated.
The interaction can fail either when you upgrade to a higher version of flash or after a browser upgrade. You can also encounter the adobe flash error if it is not installed on your system and the website you are accessing contains flash-based applications.
You can solve all the above mentioned problems through these two steps:
- Download the Flash Software and install it
- Uninstall the Flash Component
Download the Adobe Flash Player and install it – You can download the latest version of flash from the Adobe Support website.
Once you download the Flash Component, you may double-Click the file and follow the on screen instructions to install Adobe Flash.
Uninstall the Flash Component ? You can uninstall the Flash component using the Adobe uninstaller provided by Adobe. If the error persists after uninstalling Flash using the uninstaller, you will have to remove flash manually from the system. The steps are given below:
- Close all browsers.
- Click Start and then click Search.
- Select All Files and Folders and search for flash.ocx file. (For a version earlier than Flash 6, search for swflash.ocx file.)
- Note down the path name of the flash.ocx file.
- Now click Start and then click Run.
- Type regsvr32 {Full Path}\flash.ocx /u?? e.g.: regsvr32 {c:\windows\system32\adobe\flash.ocx /u
- Select OK and then click OK.
- This will unregister the flash file, now search for the files enterflash.ocx, swflash.inf (search for swflash.ocx file for versions older than Flash 6.
- Once the system finds them, select these files and delete them.
- Restart your system
Now you can follow the steps to download and install the latest version of flash. This will solve the problem completely.
If the frequency of the flash.ocx error is high, it is better to upgrade to the latest version of Flash or uninstall it manually as explained in the steps above and then reinstall it back.