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Watch fullscreen flash while working on another screen

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 7:54:41 PM

Flash has annoying habit of closing fullscreen mode whenever "anything" happens. Like when wind blows through the window or there is an earthquake on another continent. No seriously, it closes whenever it looses focus. But that is still too sensitive. I can't watch movie in fullscreen on one screen when working on another. It closes whenever I click on that second screen.

So here is a version of flash plugin that does not do that. It's version 10.0.22.87 (latest at this time) with one byte changed (compare with original if you don't believe me wink).
Removed. See below for better alternative.

Axel Gembe made patcher that handles both ActiveX and Netscape Flash plugins. It automatically finds and patches them so it's much easier to use and should also handle future 10.0 Flash versions. If any.
Download on author's page: http://deve.loping.net/projects/ignoflash/

As a sticky note for myself, I'm attaching picture of the jump that has to be patched. Will come in handy when new version comes out and when I will forget how I've done that. smile
(search for one of the DefWindowProcA calls that have similar surroundings)

PS. You can still close fullscreen flash with ESC key or using any UI button that might be provided by flash player.

PS2. Maybe there is a native solution for that? Like some hidden ini tweak for flash? Speak up if you know about such.

[edited 12.07.2009] Updated plugin with different patching approach. Fixes problem that prevented closing fullscreen mode when clicking "links" within flash. This was bad cause new tabs has been opening in background.

[edited 16.07.2009] Reverted updated plugin. It was worse then previous version.

[edited 10.08.2009] Updated plugin to version 10.0.32.18

[edited 9.12.2009] Updated plugin to version 10.0.42.34

[edited 13.02.2010] Updated plugin to version 10.0.45.2

Better Gmail title tweakPatch for user scripts activation prompt

Comments

Cyro Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8:22:22 PM

I just love when you do this kind of patching. First time it was " opera.dll" now this. When will we see a striped version of Opera? Opera Lite?

deadHarlequin Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8:33:45 PM

Sweet. I have always wanted this functionality!

João EirasxErath Thursday, April 23, 2009 3:42:24 PM

d.i.z., patch mankind to stop polluting the environment !

Rafald.i.z. Friday, April 24, 2009 6:21:23 PM

Have to warn about one bug this creates. After defocusing fullscreen mode and focusing again, clicks will be registered for flash but will also go through it. So if there is browser "underneath", you can accidentally click links or something.

Martin RauscherHades32 Saturday, April 25, 2009 1:56:04 PM

Originally posted by Cyro:

When will we see a striped version of Opera? Opera Lite?


Why do people ask this stupid question over and over again? You would gain NOTHING by removing e.g. Email and BitTorrent vs simply not using it. If you don't use it it only takes as much RAM as it's code needs (maybe 1-2MB).
And BTW something like this wouldn't be as easy as a small patch...

@d.i.z Great work as usual!

dapxin Sunday, April 26, 2009 5:11:18 AM

this is a blessing. thx!

Anonymous Wednesday, July 1, 2009 7:52:29 AM

Ago writes: Damn, I made the same patch yesterday, although I do it a bit differently. Thing is that I will do a patcher that can patch at least Flash 9 / 10 automatically. I have tested it with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. I will release "IgnoFlash" soon on http://code.bastart.eu.org/

Anonymous Tuesday, July 7, 2009 8:07:59 AM

Anonymous writes: I uploaded preliminary source code without a binary yet to my subversion repository here: http://code.bastart.eu.org/svn/ignoflash/trunk/

Rafald.i.z. Tuesday, July 7, 2009 8:30:19 AM

Bonus points if you'll fix:

Have to warn about one bug this creates. After defocusing fullscreen mode and focusing again, clicks will be registered for flash but will also go through it. So if there is browser "underneath", you can accidentally click links or something.



smile

Anonymous Wednesday, July 8, 2009 11:01:48 AM

Ago writes: I haven't fixed this yet, but I will look into it before I release the patcher.

Rafald.i.z. Saturday, July 11, 2009 10:19:20 PM

Updated zip file to fix that problem.

The issue wasn't exactly how I presented it. The problem was that when having YouTube movie in fullscreen and clicking on video, the fullscreen mode was supposed to close and new tab to open. This patch prevented fullscreen mode from closing but tabs were still opening so two or more movies started playing at the same time.

To fix it, I've patched it differently by changing target location of some earlier jump.

That new patching approach would be rather hard to make into reliable automatic patcher as number of instructions between jump and target location is likely to change in future flash versions so jump would have to be patched differently.

The new patch was not very well tested but "seems to work" (tm).

[edit] Well, not quite. Having two Opera windows and clicking on the other still closes flash. Will have to look more into it.

Anonymous Saturday, July 18, 2009 7:36:12 AM

Greg writes: Awesome - this has been bugging me ever since I started using dual monitors. THANK YOU!

Anonymous Wednesday, August 5, 2009 11:40:37 PM

Anonymous writes: This is still not working for me.

Rafald.i.z. Monday, August 10, 2009 7:54:29 PM

Updated plugin to version 10.0.32.18.

@Anonim: maybe plugin updated itself thus removing patch.

Anonymous Friday, August 14, 2009 10:51:39 AM

Israel writes: Hello: I have a question please, if I have two screens and I like put my aplication in fullscreen in the two screens, half in one and half in the another What I have to do? Sorry my bad enlgish

Anonymous Friday, August 14, 2009 10:52:46 AM

israel writes: with flash sorry And thanks

Rafald.i.z. Friday, August 14, 2009 2:19:45 PM

Originally posted by anonymous:

I have a question please, if I have two screens and I like put my aplication in fullscreen in the two screens, half in one and half in the another


It would have to be supported by flash plugin I think. And it isn't. At least I can't think of any way to make it work like that.

Anonymous Friday, August 21, 2009 12:11:37 PM

Q. B. writes: Thanks for the file. Works great and the way I like it to my my dual set up.

Anonymous Sunday, August 23, 2009 8:33:39 PM

boblikeguy writes: seriously!? who the hell figured this OUT? 74 to EB in my hex editor, oh.. obviously.. where's the Mac trick?: sudo makeflashbetter -now dammn...

Anonymous Monday, August 24, 2009 10:09:48 AM

Anonymous writes: I tried for ages to get this to work with IE 7 and it was not having any of it. Switched to Firefox - works perfectly! Found out how to do this from a youtube video, but downloaded the zip file above and installed that. It probably did the same job anyway - but the zip file is a brilliant idea - many thanks.

Anonymous Wednesday, October 7, 2009 9:31:52 PM

Anonymous writes: how can we get this to work with ie???

Anonymous Friday, October 9, 2009 8:11:54 PM

Anonymous writes: Awesome, thank you so much!

Anonymous Tuesday, October 13, 2009 7:48:00 PM

Anonymous writes: Thanks! works like a charm in Firefox.

Anonymous Saturday, October 24, 2009 8:04:33 AM

betabrain writes: what app are you using to debug in that screen cap?

Rafald.i.z. Sunday, October 25, 2009 1:17:19 PM

OllyDbg

Anonymous Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:29:38 PM

Nick writes: This worked perfectly on my old PC thanks, but now I'm using Windows 7 I can't find the file - any ideas please? :( Cheers

Anonymous Wednesday, November 4, 2009 8:15:17 PM

Matthew writes: @Nick, I know for 64bit Windows 7, you'll want to put it in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash folder. @d.i.z., This plugin is awesome, thanks! The only problem I have is that when I even simply mouse over another instance of Firefox, the video freezes. I continue to hear the audio, but the video itself does not resume until I exit out of full screen. This is easily solved by using a different browser, but if anyone has any quick ideas on how to fix this, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

Anonymous Sunday, November 8, 2009 12:52:37 AM

Nick writes: Matthew, you are awesome! Genuinely thank you so much, you can't believe what a great help this is :D Thanks

Anonymous Sunday, November 8, 2009 7:42:18 PM

Gareth writes: Nice one - I've wanted this for quite a while :) Much better! Thanks.

Anonymous Tuesday, November 17, 2009 11:48:08 PM

Anonymous writes: Great work. I know it just came out, but are you going to release the 10.1 prerelease version?

Anonymous Friday, December 4, 2009 7:53:35 PM

b_nom writes: Does anyone know about a similar fix for windows media streaming videos? Our CFO wants to watch web training fullscreen on a monitor while doing working on her main monitor

Anonymous Friday, December 4, 2009 8:39:28 PM

Anonymous writes: thanks I like all of the others here have been looking for this for some time. you da man.

Anonymous Friday, December 4, 2009 8:46:04 PM

AnonymousOOXX writes: One small byte for flash, one giant leap for mankind. You da man!

Anonymous Friday, December 4, 2009 11:17:05 PM

Anonymous writes: I second the vote for a 10.1 version.

Anonymous Friday, December 4, 2009 11:21:10 PM

Un3 writes: Thanks for this bad boy.

Anonymous Saturday, December 5, 2009 12:53:29 AM

Noah writes: OMG! THis is AWESOME! Thanks for your work!

Anonymous Saturday, December 5, 2009 3:30:32 AM

Anonymous writes: This is one of the best things that I have installed on my computer in months.

Anonymous Saturday, December 5, 2009 5:15:33 AM

Anonymous writes: was working in Chrome very well though had a few problem with flash crashing. found out about this from life hacker http://lifehacker.com/5419028/keep-flash-videos-in-full-screen-on-dual-monitors

Anonymous Saturday, December 5, 2009 5:18:39 AM

Anonymous writes: Hey this is great :) thanks so much, but i must ask, when i full screen now to my second monitor, it doesnt change the ratio to fit on the whole screen, it looks like a movie with letterbox view. but when i full screen to my main, it covers the whole screen. why? Thanks!!

Anonymous Saturday, December 5, 2009 12:16:11 PM

Anonymous writes: This is great stuff ! Thanks !

Anonymous Sunday, December 6, 2009 12:31:16 AM

Anónimo writes: any chance to get this on snow leopard?

Anonymous Sunday, December 6, 2009 1:31:39 AM

Anonymous writes: I'll also vote for a 10.1 patch :) Great work!

Anonymous Sunday, December 6, 2009 3:26:48 AM

JUANDV writes: Super! Cool .. thanks

Anonymous Sunday, December 6, 2009 1:55:15 PM

Sven writes: Absolutely fantastic! At first I didn't realize that the browsers do not necessarily use the dll found in windows/system32/macromed/flash. I had to go to Operas own plugn-folder and replace the dll there. But now that is done and the result is awesome!

Jon Kennedydown1nit Sunday, December 6, 2009 7:17:26 PM

Booya, grats on getting a Lifehacker mention. This is the sort of thing that gets a lot of attention. It's the first thing you notice when you get your 2nd screen hooked up, other than how awesome it is to have 2 screens.

Anonymous Monday, December 7, 2009 2:55:16 PM

wererogue writes: This is great. I still don't understand why flash doesn't have this.

Anonymous Monday, December 7, 2009 4:42:33 PM

Anonymous writes: I just came in from LifeHacker as well. Would also love a Flash 10.1 version.

Anonymous Wednesday, December 9, 2009 9:25:38 AM

Daniel C writes: I have the same problem when I use Picasa (desktop app) and play a slideshow on my second monitor (the TV). Is there a fix for this? The fix on this page seems to only work for flash in browsers.

Anonymous Wednesday, December 9, 2009 9:28:14 PM

Anonymous writes: Dual monitors flash (10.0.42.34) stay full screen: HEX editor, NPSWF32.dll (system32\Macro...\Flash), addr 0x13797B, "74" -> "EB" - Halfdan Reschat

Rafald.i.z. Wednesday, December 9, 2009 10:31:46 PM

Exactly as Halfdan wrote.

Updated zip to 10.0.42.34 with patch.

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