Macromedia Flash
 

I am constantly outraged at the way Macromedia Flash forces itself onto my computer in spite of me saying over and over again that I don't want it. My laptop PC is constantly nagging me to upgrade to the latest version of Flash - even though I've answered "No" at least a thousand times.

A couple of years ago, I found that it was possible to disable Flash by renaming the file SWFLASH.OCX. I did this on my desktop PC and it worked brilliantly for years. None of those garish, flashing adverts that annoy everybody else. Then I upgraded XP to SP2.....

Flash is now back with a vengeance - in spite of the fact that there's no SWFLASH.OCX on my machine. I wasn't asked if I wanted to install it and there seems to be no way of turning it off.

Are there any browsers that offer the option of disabling Flash? Or is there any other way to disable it??

hello firefox and hello the adblock extension... works wonders... I have no ADs ANYWHERE... and if one does get by once, it won't next time!

I believe the XP equivolent of the file you are looking for will be found in the "Windows\Downloaded Program Files" directory.