How to Enable Flash in Chrome: Ruffle & Other Options

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Play Flash games on Chrome after the end of Flash support
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Adobe officially ended support for Flash in December of 2020, then began blocking Flash files in browsers like Chrome after January 12, 2021. But if you’re missing your favorite Flash games and animations, never fear–you can easily experience them again using the open source Ruffle Flash emulator for Chrome. In this wikiHow article, we’ll explain how to install Ruffle and also go over some alternative options.

How to Use Flash in Chrome Since Support Ended

The easiest way to enable Flash in Chrome is with the Ruffle extension. Simply install Ruffle from the Chrome Web Store, then visit a website with Flash content. You can also try alternatives such as visiting a Flash archive with a built-in emulator or installing Clean Flash Player.

Section 1 of 3:

Can you still enable Flash in Chrome?

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  1. Not officially, but there are workarounds. Support for Flash ended in 2020, and Flash stopped working completely in Chrome and other browsers in January 2021. [1] However, there are still ways to play Flash files in your browser. The easiest method is to use the Ruffle emulator, a Chrome extension that automatically detects Flash content on websites and makes it playable.
    • Other options include using a standalone Flash player to view Flash files outside your browser, visiting websites with a Flash emulator already built in, or installing Clean Flash Player with an older version of Chrome.
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Section 2 of 3:

Using the Ruffle Emulator

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  1. 1
    Navigate to the Ruffle page in the Chrome Web Store. Open your Chrome browser and visit this page . From here, you can easily install the Ruffle extension in your browser.
    • Ruffle is an open source Flash Player emulator that works with all modern browsers. It’s more secure than the original Flash Player. It’s also available as a standalone desktop app. [2]
  2. 2
    Click Add to Chrome . This button is on the top right side of the page. Click Add extension to confirm in the popup window.
  3. 3
    Visit a website with Flash content. That’s it–typically, Ruffle will start doing its thing automatically! You should be able to run Flash games and other Flash content directly in your browser.
  4. 4
    Use the Ruffle userscript if the extension doesn’t work. If you’re having trouble getting Flash content to work even with the Ruffle extension installed, you can also try using their custom userscript on the website with the Flash file.
    • Install an extension like Tampermonkey that allows you to run userscripts on websites you visit.
    • Using your extension of choice, plug in this script to enable the Ruffle emulator: <script src="https://unpkg.com/@ruffle-rs/ruffle"></script>
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Section 3 of 3:

Other Options

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  1. 1
    Visit websites with a built-in Flash emulator. If you’re feeling nostalgic for old Flash games and animations, a lot of them have been archived on sites with built-in Flash Player emulators (usually Ruffle). You can visit these sites to play Flash games in Chrome without having to install or enable anything extra.
    • The Flash Game Archive is a free archive with over 12,000 Flash Games. You don’t need to install anything to run them.
    • Archive.org has an extensive library of Flash games that you can download or play right in your browser with built-in emulators.
    • Flash Museum has hundreds of thousands of Flash games and over 20,000 Flash animations that you can access for free from your browser.
  2. 2
    Use Clean Flash Player. CleanFlash is built from an official Chinese edition of the original Adobe Flash Player, since Flash is still supported in China. If you really want the experience of using the official Adobe Flash Player, this is a good option. However, it’s not compatible with newer versions of Chrome. You’ll need to install an older version for this option to work. [3]
    • You can download Clean Flash Player here . Note that this option is only compatible with Windows.
    • The latest version of Chrome that will run Clean Flash Player is 87.0.4280.168. You can download older versions of Chrome from an archive such as this one . Be aware that using an old version of Chrome may leave your computer vulnerable to security problems.
  3. 3
    Try a standalone Flash player app. There are a variety of portable or standalone Flash emulators you can try. These options can offer a more powerful viewing/playing experience, since they tap directly into your computer’s GPU instead of running the file through a browser. Ruffle offers a free standalone app for Windows, Mac, and Linux .
    • The Ruffle app allows you to browse for and open downloaded files on your computer. You can also navigate to a website with Flash in your browser, then copy and paste the URL into the File or URL text field in Ruffle. Click Start to begin playing the file.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life-alternative.html
      2. ↑ https://ruffle.rs/
      3. ↑ https://gitlab.com/cleanflash/installer

      About This Article

      Article Summary X

      1. Click the three-dot menu in Chrome.
      2. Click Advanced .
      3. Click Content settings .
      4. Click Flash .
      5. Toggle on the switch.
      6. Go to a site that has Flash.
      7. Click Click to enable Adobe Flash Player .
      8. Click Allow .

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