When trying to play a video, movie, music video or TV shows in IE9 which based on Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight on IE9 (Internet Explorer 0), the plug-in or add-in cannot load or is not working to play the media. Instead, IE9 user is informed that either Adobe Flash (Shockwave Player) or Silverlight is not detected, is not up to date to latest version (e.g. you need to upgrade your Adobe Flash Player to watch this video), or is not installed on the system. In other cases, the embedded Flash or Silverlight video simply does not been display or show up, or appear as blank, totally white or black.

The problem is that the latest version of Adobe Flash (or Shockwave Player) or Microsoft Silverlight has been installed. When using earlier version of IE such as IE8, both Flash and Silverlight is working fine. But error happens once user upgrades to IE9. And the issue of Flash and Silverlight not working happens on most websites that using the technology, including Youtube, Dailymotion, MSNBC, Hulu, and etc.

When the Flash Player is not loading, the error message that may appear including “Cannot play media. You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version”; “Your System Status – We’re Sorry! You need to update your Flash Player”; “You need to have Adobe Flash 9 to view this content. Please click here to continue” and etc.

The reason of Flash or Silverlight streamed media not playback, not loading, not working, deemed not install or appear blank in IE9 is because the Java applets has been blocked or filtered by ActiveX Filtering, a new feature in IE9 to enhance trustworthy browsing. Until IE or Flash and Silverlight is updated to compatible with the ActiveX Filtering functionality so that the embedding script or code is considered trustworthy and allowed, the solution is to temporarily turn off ActiveX Filtering.

Here’s how to turn off or disable ActiveX Filtering in IE9.