Enable Flash on Windows 8, Surface RT Metro IE Browser

Steve was right, Flash is an extremely in-efficient technology. Soon after Apple made it public its hatred for Flash on their platform, everyone started to realize how ugly it was.

Android dropped support for Flash in Android 4.1 Jellybean. At the same time, WP7, WP8 showed no love for Adobe’s Flash.

Windows 8’s Metro IE10 browser has Flash disabled be default, which is whitelisted for a select websites. You’re pretty much out of luck with flash on your Windows 8 Desktops, laptops, and Surface RT. However, there are workarounds to get it to work.

XDA Developer Marvin_S did some hacking to make it possible to bypass Metro Browser’s Flash restrictions on certain websites.

The hack is incredibly easy to execute for just about anyone.

How to Enable Flash on Windows 8, Windows Surface RT

Step 1. Go to Desktop IE10 and click ALT –> Tools –> Compatibility View settings. Now UNCHECK the last checkmark with: “Download updated compatibility list from Microsoft”.

Step 2. Navigate to  C:\Users\[USER_NAME]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IECompatData\iecompatdata.xml.

Step 3. Use your favorit editor like Notepad++ or anything to open the xml. Its a flat file where you can add your favorite whitelisted urls to it.

Step 4. Open this file and look for these tags:

[... the domains are listed here...]
</Flash>

Inside these tags all whitelisted (flash-enabled) websites are listed for IE10 Metro. All you do is add your desired website inside these tags as follows:

<domain>YOURDESIREDDOMAIN.COM</domain>

Add as many websites as you’d like…

Step 5. Lets now do the last step i.e. delete browsing histroy. Open IE10 Metro and click WIN+I (to open settings) –> Internet Options —> Delete browsing history

You are done!

You should now have all those whitelisted website flash enabled. Enjoy Full flash on Windows 8 / RT.

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