When you go to download/upgrade your Adobe Flash Player, which you would ordinarily download from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/, this installs a download manager which some of you (myself included) find quite irritating to deal with. There is a way to download a standalone installer that does not use the download manager. It is available...

Everybody knows that I love (sarcasm..) Flash. The current Flash player version is 10, however there is a 10.1 Beta 3 release out at the time of this writing, so I decided to give it a go to see how it performs. The first thing to note is how it’s installed. This is on the download page:In Windows, this is a five step process.Close all web browsers...

We’ve been told ever since we started using web browsers that it’s a good idea to clear out your cache and cookies periodically. This used to be a pain in the neck to get done, but with modern flavors of web browsers you can clear this information out easily. In IE8 and Firefox you can use the keystroke CTRL+SHIFT+DEL, then in IE8 choose to clear...

The Portable Document Format, which you know simply as PDF, is in fact a very good format for documents mainly due to four facts:They’re usually significantly smaller compared to a DOC (especially if there are images within). They look exactly the same no matter what OS you use. It is true WYSIWYG concerning printers. What you see on screen is...

For those wondering, I am running the 32-bit edition of Windows 7. I did this primarily for application compatibility above all else. The first response from those who are familiar with 64-bit environments are quick to say, "But you can run 32-bit apps in a 64-bit environment easily." That’s not always the case. Running certain 32-bit apps in...

Situation: You use an app that requires Adobe AIR but decide you don’t want it anymore and uninstall it. The app was easily removed by going to Add/Remove Programs, but AIR is still installed and there appears to be no way to uninstall it. Update: The latest version of AIR does have an Add/Remove entry after installation but older versions do not. If...

It seems like in the past couple of weeks a lot of security risks are popping up. So to add to the list, I read about a critical security risk with Adobe Reader versions 8.1.2 and lower (this exploit is not applicable to version 9). The vunerability comes from the use of JavaScript inside the PDF file: Engineers from CoreLabs determined that Adobe Reader could...

What is a "cloud" application? It’s any application that has the power of a desktop (as in installed locally to your computer) app – except it’s all on the web. You probably use cloud apps already and probably didn’t even realize it. Do you use Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail? That’s all in the cloud. But this is about...

We all love some of the internet-based applications that are out there and what they can do for you. But, what if those kinds of applications could be moved to your computer? That is what Adobe Air does. In this 101-level article, I’m going to talk about what Adobe Air is and why you might want to take note of it.What Is It? Adobe AIR is a...