How to get the Flash version update notification pop-up window to appear at will, manually



Adobe will prompt you from time to time when a new update to Flash Player is available. When that happens, you should not simply click DOWNLOAD. There’s a better way to get Flash Updates

But, what if, for whatever reason you want to manually make the flash update notifcation pop-up window appear, at will, whenever you want?

It’s a hard search on Google. I only found 2 hits:

  1. Force Manual Update Adobe Flash Player Windows on guidingtech.com
  2. How do I trigger a Flash Player update? in the Adobe Forums (i actually provided the response on this one; same as i included here, below)

My Answer:

In Windows 7,

Start -> type “cmd” into the search box (without the quotes)

Windows should find a program named cmd

Click on it to start command prompt.

A black text window should appear, with a prompt and cursor, like the one below.

cmd_window

At the prompt you want to run the FlashUtil program with the -update plugin argument but the problem is that

  1. The version number changes with each update, and
  2. Over time, adobe changes where in the file system it stores this file

So, you will probably have to search for a similar program. Once you find it, replace mine below with the program you found, and the path you found it in.

The following command works today on my system. As you can see i’m currently on version 14.0.0.145 (I will be upgrading to version 16.0.0.235 today.)

C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil32_14_0_0_145_plugin.exe -update plugin

Running this command (with the right FlashUtil exe file, once you find it) produces the familiar flash update notification window popup, which looks like this (for the v16.0.0.235 update):

flash_update_notification_window
[This specific example is for the v16.0.0.235 update]

.

Now i would NOT click DOWNLOAD, that’s not the best way to get Flash Updates