Anoto Live Forms - Unable to access webUI due to Flash being unsupported
NOTE: Anoto will not take responsibility for the potential security risks or subsequent issues that might arise from running the outdated software in this workaround.
The time has finally arrived where Flash has become unsupported! Unfortunately, trying to retain Flash functionality into 2021 appears to be more intricate than what we initially thought. Our initial instruction back in 2019 was to keep browsers from updating automatically after 2020. However, we have now come to learn that there are THREE aspects we need to try and control, in order to retain Flash support into 2021!
1
The browsers
(limitations present to run the Flash plugin)
2
The Flash Player itself
(Adobe has pushed out a 'hard' deadline of 12/01/2021 from when their Flash player can no longer be run from)
3
The PC's OS
(nothing noted on this front yet...waiting to see)
In the example below, I'll be using a PC with
Windows 10 Pro (x64) &
Google Chrome (x64). At present, with the latest Chrome browser version:
...when you select to (enable) 'Get Flash', after accessing your Anoto Live Forms web interface, you are redirected to Adobe's Flash EOL-webpage:
We have now investigated potential workarounds for this & found the following to be the one that worked for us. Please note that this will entail you downloading/installing outdated versions of the Flash Player & browsers .
Please follow the steps below in order to retain the Flash functionality for your ALF web interface:
1
Uninstall Google Chrome via 'Apps & Features'
(accessible by right-clicking on the Windows Start-button)
2
Uninstall Adobe Flash Player via the same route as #1
3
Search the internet & download a version of Google Chrome (x64) from 2020, i.e. 86.0.4240.75
(released on 2020-10-07)
4
Search the internet & download an older version of Adobe Flash Player, i.e. 32.0.0.371
(released on 2019-11-06 - ensure to install the PPAPI flavor for Chrome)
5
Reboot your PC
6
Install Adobe Flash Player from step 4
7
Disconnect your PC from the internet (in order to prevent automatic updating) & install Google Chrome from step #3
8
Select the Windows Start-button & type
msconfig and hit enter
9
Access the Services-tab from the msconfig-window & select the Service-column, in order to list them alphabetically
10
Scroll down the list and deselect the 2 'Google Update Service' items & select 'Apply'
(you'll need to reboot your PC afterwards in order for this change to take effect)
11
Once rebooted, launch Google Chrome & clear all cached data by selecting the menu-button (3 dots, top-right) and then 'Settings - Privacy and security - Clear browsing data - Clear data'
12
Relaunch Chrome, access your
Anoto Live Forms web interface again and select the 'Get Flash' link (1)
(you'll probably receive a message about Flash being blocked on the page)
13
Select the notification icon (2) in the address bar & select 'Manage'
14
On the resulting page
, toggle the setting from 'Block sites from running Flash' to 'Ask first'
15
Return to your Anoto Live Forms webpage & refresh the page (F5) & login as normal
