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Google Street View Now Requires Flash Player v. 10; AdBlock Plus


frogman

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I changed those two key values from 9.0.277.0 to 10.0.45.2 (the most current version 10)

The most current version of Flash is 10.1.53.64, can you try it with that version?

I haven't tried that version, but I wondered now that I am reported as having 10.0.45.2 after amending the driver is it then possible to try and update 10.0.45.2 to the most recent version of flash being 10.1.53.64, or would that just mess things up and perhaps I should just be happy that I have flash 10.
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I changed those two key values from 9.0.277.0 to 10.0.45.2 (the most current version 10)

The most current version of Flash is 10.1.53.64, can you try it with that version?

I believe it won't work, because "10.1.53.64" has 10 charachters, while both "9.0.277.0" and "10.0.45.2" have 9. This means one can substitute "10.0.45.2" for "9.0.277.0" without occupying any space not intended for that string (i.e.: it's an isometric patch), but cannot do the same with "10.1.53.64", because the latter is one byte too long. I found out, not so long ago, that such a non-isometric patch breaks Flash 7, so I'm quite confident it'd similarly break Flash 10. And, even if I didn't know about the patching of Adobe 7, generally speaking, non-isometric patches are expected to break programs, and usually really do so.

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I changed those two key values from 9.0.277.0 to 10.0.45.2 (the most current version 10)

The most current version of Flash is 10.1.53.64, can you try it with that version?

I believe it won't work, because "10.1.53.64" has 10 charachters, while both "9.0.277.0" and "10.0.45.2" have 9. This means one can substitute "10.0.45.2" for "9.0.277.0" without occupying any space not intended for that string (i.e.: it's an isometric patch), but cannot do the same with "10.1.53.64", because the latter is one byte too long. I found out, not so long ago, that such a non-isometric patch breaks Flash 7, so I'm quite confident it'd similarly break Flash 10. And, even if I didn't know about the patching of Adobe 7, generally speaking, non-isometric patches are expected to break programs, and usually really do so.

Thanks for that info, I am quite happy that my browser reports flash version "10.0.45.2" as being installed, when of course we know it really isn't, as I actually have "9.0.277.0" installed, have I got this part right in that now that the driver has been amended so that my system is fooled to think that version 10 is installed, is it the browser that is being fooled or is it my system?

I would think the latter being that the amended driver sits in the windows system, have I got this right?

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I changed those two key values from 9.0.277.0 to 10.0.45.2 (the most current version 10)

The most current version of Flash is 10.1.53.64, can you try it with that version?

I believe it won't work, because "10.1.53.64" has 10 charachters, while both "9.0.277.0" and "10.0.45.2" have 9. This means one can substitute "10.0.45.2" for "9.0.277.0" without occupying any space not intended for that string (i.e.: it's an isometric patch), but cannot do the same with "10.1.53.64", because the latter is one byte too long. I found out, not so long ago, that such a non-isometric patch breaks Flash 7, so I'm quite confident it'd similarly break Flash 10. And, even if I didn't know about the patching of Adobe 7, generally speaking, non-isometric patches are expected to break programs, and usually really do so.

You could always try 10.0.54.1. It has the right number of characters and should pass the Version test as it is an even newer Version (Future).

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When I restarted the computer an Adobe message appeared asking me to update to a newer version of Flash player, when I hit to accept it looked like it was going to install, but then a windows message said that it wanted an upgraded version of windows, so does this mean if I install KernelEx then all new versions of the flash player will install?

And to answer your question why I use Firefox 2 is because when I had KernelEx installed my Zone Alarm Firewall failed to launch in the system tray.

Is there a way around this, like a configuration for KernelEx, I ask as I don't know too much about what to configure for that program.

Can I just point out that although I have Flash player 9 installed I have it reported as 10 by using the new modded driver.

Edited by frogman
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I was told I could configure KernelEx so that windows thinks I have Windows 98 S.E for the Firewall problem that I just mentioned, but I don't know how to do this, can anyone help and advise me please?

I was confused why I would need to do this being that I already have Windows 98, but am I right in thinking that you can configure KernelEx for different programs on the system?

In other words have KernelEx to fool the system into thinking I have XP, but also to make it think I still have 98 for the firewall?

Edited by frogman
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I was told I could configure KernelEx so that windows thinks I have Windows 98 S.E for the Firewall problem that I just mentioned, but I don't know how to do this, can anyone help and advise me please?

I was confused why I would need to do this being that I already have Windows 98, but am I right in thinking that you can configure KernelEx for different programs on the system?

In other words have KernelEx to fool the system into thinking I have XP, but also to make it think I still have 98 for the firewall?

To disable KernelEx for one specific program you need to right click program shortcut or .exe file itself and choose properties. Then in compatibility tab you can either force Windows 98 compatibility mode or disable KernelEx extensions completely for that program.

That way rest of your system will be fooled into thinking it's running XP, and program that has issues with it will be isolated.

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I downloaded and installed what I think is the latest Flash version 9, which is 9.0.277.0. After installing it, I searched the registry for "9.0.277.0" and found it in two places:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Adobe Flash Player Plugin

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\MozillaPlugins\@adobe.com/FlashPlayer

Listed under the key-names "DisplayVersion" and "Version".

I changed those two key values from 9.0.277.0 to 10.0.45.2 (the most current version 10).

After restarting my win-98 machine and visiting Adobe's version-checker web page and Google Street view, both still claimed that I had flash version 9. So that didn't work. In fact, upon the re-start, I got the adobe update screen telling me that a new version of flash was available (version 10.something). I didn't take adobe up on it's offer initially, but I did later and what-ever it downloaded, it didn't like my OS.

I then loaded NPSWF32.dll into a hex editor and searched for "9.0.277.0". It exists in many places, but it must be changed in two specific places. Once I changed it to 10.0.45.2 and re-opened firefox 2.0.0.20, Adobe said I was running 10.0.45.2, and google Street-view operated completely normally. I checked other websites (you-tube for one) and verified that flash content was rendered correctly (all video's played just fine).

I don't know if I'm allowed to offer this modded version of NPSWF32.dll here, or post a download link to it, so I'll wait for a green light from someone here in authority before I do.

Well done!

I have downloaded latest Flash version for Win98SE 9.0.277.0, and I have opened with an hex editor all files into the folder C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MACROMED\FLASH and I have replaced the 9.0.277.0 string with 10.0.45.2.

Then I have searched into all the registry all entries with 9.0.277.0 and I have replaced them with the other string.

Now Google Street View works perfectly on my pc that don't has KernelEx installed.

For hex editor I use HxD ( http://mh-nexus.de/en/programs.php ), with this editor it's very easy to replace these strings.

Thank you,

aru

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Why use FF 2 when 3.6 runs on KernelEx?

Of course you can run Firefox 3.6.x (I've tested 3.6.3 version already) with KernelEx but as far as I know there's one (quite serious) problem - at least for me.

Java 6 update 20, which I have installed on my system, doesn't work with Firefox 3.6.x.

Because of that, I'm using Firefox 3.5.10.

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Guest wsxedcrfv

The version number is stored as unicode for the product version and file version. These versions are located in the Visual Studio version info structure, which is contained in the resource section of an executable. The name of this win32 structure is VS_Version_Info. It has a bunch of fields in it (copyright, file version, product version).

The string "version" appears over 50 times as a substring of something else - as both ascii and unicode.

One in particular is "-playerVersion=" which may be an (undocumented?) command line option. There are many such "-(something)=" strings.

I tried transplanting NPSWF32.dll version 10.1.53.64 into one of my win-98 systems (does not have kernelEx) but it doesn't work (it's almost double the size of the flash-9 file). The file flashplayer.xpt is identical between version 9 and 10.

And yea, I realized later that 10.0.45.2 is not the latest version of Flash 10. But as has been noted, it contains the same number of characters as "9.0.277.0" that it replaced.

I've also come across this web page where the modded file doesn't work:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540

I can view that flash content on a win-98 system running an old version of KernelEx and Flash 10.0.12.36, but it won't display on another win-98 system that doesn't have kernelEx but does have the latest version 9 NPSWF32.dll file modded to look like 10.1.53.64.

My NPSWF32.dll (10.0.12.36) is 3.6 mb in size. The 10.1.53.64 version is 5.8 mb. I'm going to see if the 10.0.12.36 version will run on a win-98 system without kernelEx.

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@wsxedcrfv: you can spoof the Flash version, provided you use isometric patches, whatever the exact version you make it say it is. That'll fool a bunch of sites that just ask for a specific version of Flash for no reason at all, which are most, but won't work for those few that actually need new funcionality which doesn't exist in the older version-changed file. There's no solution for this, nor the spoof should be created with these few sites in mind, since, for them, even a successful spoof is bound to fail to work. There's no avoiding this fact.

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I've had it with Windows 98, I will be purchasing a new custom built computer soon with Windows 7.

I have tried as much patching this old system, but I do think the time has come to upgrade it.

By the way the modified driver didn't work after I removed the KernelEx and went back to Firefox 2.

It won't be long before all AV vendors drop their support for 98, Avast being one of them.

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