flash.ocx cannot be found

If you suddenly find that an error along the lines of "Flash.ocx cannot be found" pops up on your computer, it may be there when it comes out of hibernation, or just appears after a time of inactivity. It could be that you have a Screensaver that uses an old version of Adobe Flash Player.

Since version 8 of Adobe Flash Player there is no longer a file called flash.ocx as part of the installation, instead this file has a name related to its version. eg Adobe Flash Player 9.0.47.0 is Flash9d.ocx.

The way to workaround is to find the Flash9d.ocx file, which is usually at

C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash

make a copy and rename this copy to Flash.ocx

NB - if you cannot see the extension (ie the .ocx) bit then this is because you have file extensions hidden, you should still be able to rename the file, just change the first bit. You should know you have the right file if it is of type "ActiveX Control"

I can confirm that this did work for me.

http://www.adobe.com/go/kb402694