FlashBlockBeforeSmall

Despite the “cool factor” that Macromedia Flash animations bring to a web page, you might want to limit Flash on your PC. You may have a computer with only a small amount of RAM that you don’t want Flash animations to gobble up.

Perhaps you’ve read about (or seen!) “malvertisements,” maliciously-designed Flash animations that display seemingly-helpful screens that say, “Your system is infected” or prompt you with a phony “System scan” option. Those fooled into clicking these convincing screens could end up infecting their computers with malware.

Flashblock, a free add-on for Firefox, prevents all Flash content from loading, except from the sites you specify.

After installing the add-on and restarting Firefox, you’ll notice a difference when you browse to a site with Flash content. Generally, you’ll see the animation replaced with Flash logo. Mouse over the logo, and it changes to a “play” arrow. Click it, and you’ll be able to play just that clip. Or, right-click in the Flash area, and you’ll have an option to enable Flash for the site you’re currently browsing.

An exception is CNN.com. When you browse to their Video page with Flashblock loaded, you won’t see the Flash logo–videos just won’t play. No problem though. In the Firefox menu, choose Tools > Add-ons, then the Options button. There, you can manually type in ‘cnn.com’ (without the quotes), then click the Add button.

Takeaway: Flash animations can be amusing or even useful. They can also use a lot of system memory and even trick less-savvy users into infecting their own computers.

Flashblock can improve your browsing experience by displaying only the Flash content that you want to see. Check it out today!