YouTube Woes – You either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe’s Flash Player
I was recently helping a friend who was unable to view YouTube videos in Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP. Whenever she tried to view a YouTube video the following error message would appear:
“You either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe’s Flash Player”
She had already re-installed Adobe Flash player several times before calling me for help. Obviously the problem wasn’t that she had an old version of Flash. I confirmed that she had the latest version by having her access Adobe’s Site .
Sometimes this problem can be caused by misconfigured security settings in Internet Explorer.
To restore IE’s security settings to their default, access “Internet Options” from the control panel.
Once inside Internet Options, click the “Security” tab, make sure you are in the “Internet” zone and click the “Default Level” button. The “Default Level” button will turn grey after it is clicked. Then click “Apply” and “OK” to close the Internet Options window.
Click "Default Level" to Restore Default Security Settings
Restart Internet Explorer and try again to view a YouTube video. If you get the same error message, you may have a corrupt installation of Adobe Flash. Simply re-installing the Flash player will not fix the installation. You must uninstall the Flash Player first.
To do this you need to download the Adobe Flash Removal Tool, execute it, restart the computer, and then re-install Flash.
So first of all, download the Flash Removal Tool from Adobe’s website. Here is the link (if the link doesn’t work just type “Flash Removal Tool” into Google and click the first Adobe link). Save the file to your desktop. Make sure you close Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger and any other applications that may be using Adobe Flash before you execute the uninstaller.
Adobe offers a MAC and Windows version of the uninstaller
After you run the uninstaller you should receive a message that the uninstallation was successful. At this point, reboot the computer. Once the computer has restarted, go to Adobe’s Flash download site (Again, if the link doesn’t work just type “Get Adobe Flash” into Google) and re-install Flash.
When Flash has finished installing, try viewing YouTube videos again.
If neither resetting IE’s security settings or uninstalling/re-installing Flash worked for you, you may also want to try completely resetting Internet Explorer. To do this, access Internet Options as explained above, click the “Advanced” tab and then click the “Reset” button. This will delete all the temporary Internet files, cookies, and reset all the settings to their original state.
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One Response to “YouTube Woes – You either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of Adobe’s Flash Player”
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August 5th, 2009 at 5:29 am
i had the same problem it is solved by downloading Flash player as zip file ,visit this adobe page http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/191/tn_19166.html and look for this part (If the ActiveX Control for Flash Player fails to install, download the executable installer.
If the information above has not resolved the issue, download the executable Flash Player installer here:
•Download and unzip Install_Flash_Player_10_ActiveX.zip.)