Flash Removal Tool

Microsoft have released a 'flash removal update' to take Adobe Flash permanently off W10 computers and block its reinstallation.

The update is optional but is being widely promoted by some tech websites.

Please be aware that if you run this it will stop the older issues in the archive from working, and the only way to restore it would be to roll back the W10 update and reinstall Flash.

It's not clear if it would block third party flash players.

Obviously it's your decision whether you want to use the update or not, but I thought I should make people aware.

Neil

Though anyone taking out a new sub direct with Pocketmags would still miss out on about 2yrs of ME/MEW as the HTML5 ones would still be available in the archive and there is the odd bit of "subscriber only" content too.

Flash Player, I have just subscribed to MEW both print and digital, I now find I cannot access any archived magazines prior to March 2019 due to Google Chrome blocking Flash Player, I have only just updated to a new PC with Win 10 so cannot roll back updates.

Is there or will there be a fix for this or have I been done ?

The email [email protected] does not appear to be being answered as I was advised by the telephone help desk to contact this address without success.

Hi Stephen

The archive is a bonus we make available to digital subscribers, not part of the subscription.

We are hopeful it will be possible to make the older issues available using HTML5 instead of flash but this is unlikely to happen soon as the publishers simply don't have the staff resources available at the moment due to covid.

If you search 'flash player replacement for Windows 10' you should be able to track down an emulator (e.g. Supernova or Ruffle add-ins for Google Chrome) that will play flash content in some browsers, but as I haven't tried any of these I can't make a specific recommendation.

Also bear in mind that installing an emulator could make your computer vulnerable.

Only you can decide if what suits you best.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 20/01/2021 15:16:34

I tried yesterday to read a Digital ME and it failed with the dreaded 'Bad Referrer' error. Digging deeper suggests it might be an SSL Authentication Problem, and nothing to do with Flash. Might be a problem at my end, but it effects Firefox on Ubuntu and W10, and Edge on two different machines. I'm investigating!

However, I was hoping to try ruffle, which is a Flash emulator, to see if it coped with a digital magazine. Ruffle's a complete rewrite and doesn't have the deep security problems that bedevilled real Flash. (Though it may have some new flaws of its own!) Unfortunately I haven't been able to try it because I can't connect to the digital magazines at all.

A quick overview may help if anyone else wants to give it a go.

Three versions, only number 3 is worth trying at home:

1. A command line utility that plays downloaded swf files (Shockwave Flash Movies). I don't think it helps with Digital magazines because they can't be downloaded, and aren't movies!
2. A web-server utility that converts flash content before serving it to customers. It requires all the web pages containing flash to be modified to download some Javascript to the users. This is one for a web-site developer to investigate; I've no idea how much work it might be, or if it would fix our problem.
3. A browser plugin for Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Edge. This is the one to try. However Ruffle isn't production ready yet and is likely to be buggy and have missing features.

As ruffle is still experimental the plugin can't be loaded through the Browsers usual plug-in/extensions menu. Instead:

• The plug-in is downloaded manually (easy to do)
• And activated using the Browser's developer mode. (Not difficult)
  • Navigate to about:debugging.
  • Click on This Firefox.
  • Click Load Temporary Add-on...
  • Select the .xpi that you downloaded.
• And Chrome is very similar. (Not sure about Edge & Safari)

Browser Developer mode loads plug-ins temporarily for the current session only for test and debugging. As a early version plug-in might be faulty, it's not installed permanently and has to be manually loaded each time the Browser is restarted. (If bad code crashes the browser, the next restart will be clean.)

Full instructions & download links on Ruffle's Web Page.

I haven't been able to test if the plug in works with digital magazines or not. I'll report again if I can get past my 'Bad Referrer' problem.

Dave

SOD, have a look at Dominic's post in this thread which gets rid of Bad referrer

Thanks Jason, didn't work for me unfortunately.

Connecting with wget, says:

--2021-01-20 17:46:03-- https://www.mydigitalmagazine.co.uk/magviewer/popup.php?token=moogzfgikdlklksltkdhjibkleuycswy
Resolving www.mydigitalmagazine.co.uk (www.mydigitalmagazine.co.uk)... 79.99.147.137
Connecting to www.mydigitalmagazine.co.uk (www.mydigitalmagazine.co.uk)|79.99.147.137|:443... connected.
OpenSSL: error:1414D172SL routines:tls12_check_peer_sigalg:wrong signature type
Unable to establish SSL connection.

Found a web page linking this to an SSL version mismatch and another suggesting a digital certificate issue, either of which mess up https.

Got some things to try. Why is nothing ever easy?

Dave

I have just tried my access to MEW digi subscriptions having renewed my 'paper & digital' subs. In MEW I can get back to # 278 Mar. 2019 & no further, going into 'Pocketmags' I can access Issue 213- Mar 2014. does this mean I have paid for digi' issues I can no longer have access to!.

George.

Couple of things here

Maybe the magazine should migrate the archive to a more "durable" format ....nothing lasts forever but formats least of all

And secondly from the thread title I was hoping for a discussion on the merits of explosive deburring ...sometime used for flash removal...

Edited By jason udall on 20/01/2021 18:52:32

George,

Refer to Neil's comments in this post.

Paul.

I solved 'Bad Referer'* by installing the Firefox 'Referer Modifier' add-on. It allows the user to override the browser's privacy policy, which have all been tightened recently to strip information out of URLs when a web request crosses a security boundary. An example would be a secure website (https) serving a link to an insecure http website, a mistake that compromises the user and the secure website. I don't understand what rule is being broken between me and www.mydigitalmagazine.co.uk, but telling Referer Modifier' to send the full referer URL to them opens the archive,

Opening an old Model Engineer magazine had the expected result - error message because I don't have Adobe Flash. So I activated Ruffle and tried again. It attempted to open the magazine, but said:

So promising, but Ruffle doesn't work yet,

Dave

PS * 'referer' isn't my spelling mistake. It was misspelled in the Standard and accidentally became official!

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 20/01/2021 21:45:48

Quite possibly ^^^

Hi George,

The Pocketmags issues are the ones you have paid for and can still access if your subscription lapses, if you still have a Pocketmags account.

The archive is a 'bonus' for digital subscribers while their subscription is active, continued access to it is not guaranteed.

Neil

Neil

Thanks for the heads up Neil.

George.

[This posting has been removed]

^^^^

I was expecting this to be about some flashy new Noga deburring attachment.

regards

I guess not everyone reads the thread subtitles

MichaelG.

Good news, everyone... there is work in hand with converting the archives, although it will take a little while.

Neil