ItsGeekToMe.co
The official home of It's Geek to Me on the web!
Issue #312: July 14, 2013
Q: When trying to play some online games I get the message “Adobe Flashplayer Installed on PC not supported by Toshiba Media Controller Plug-In Toshiba Media Controller Plug-In Failed“. Also sometimes the laptop won’t play u-Tube videos. I have the most current Flashplayer downloaded. Is there a fix for this problem?
– Jackie B.
Niceville, Florida
A: You know how I’m always nagging you to make sure your systems are running the latest versions of everything? Well, sometimes when you update something (like Adobe Flash Player in this case) you might find that other stuff that uses it isn’t compatible with the newest version. You have a couple of choices here. If you don’t need any of the functionality provided by the Toshiba Media Controller Plug-in, you could just disable it. You do that by going to Tools->Internet Options from within Internet Explorer. Then go to the Programs tab and select Manage Add-Ons. Find the plug-in in the list of browser extensions displayed, select it and click Disable in the lower right corner. If you decide you’d rather keep the plug-in, you’ll need to contact Toshiba and get an update that’s compatible. If there is no update available, your only option left is to downgrade back to the prior version of Flash Player (the one that was compatible with the Toshiba Media Controller Plug-in). All of these things can be found with simple Google searches.
Q: My problem is that on my Vista machine, when I attempt to create a new folder, the only option I’m now given is to create a new BRIEFCASE. When I right click on a folder to create a new sub-folder, the drop-down menu no longer offers me the ability to select FOLDER. I’ve never seen the option to create a BRIEFCASE before, and while it might be a handy thing, I’d still like to be able to create a new folder when I need one. Many thanks for any ideas you might be able to share with me!!
– Doug J.
Niceville, Florida
A: Briefcase is a feature introduced a few versions of Windows ago, that is supposed to help you keep files synchronized between two computers, or between the disks built into your computer, and removable media. It can actually be a fairly useful little feature if one takes the time to learn to use it. But as you probably surmised, briefcases are not the same as folders, and they certainly weren’t intended to replace “Folder” on your pop-up context menu to prevent you from creating folders.
Much of the stuff that appears on context menus comes from entries in the Windows Registry, and that includes stuff that’s supposed to appear on the slide-off menu next to the word “New”. The fact that “Folder” is absent from your menu means that its entry somehow got deleted from the registry, or changed so that Windows can’t interpret it correctly. It’s nigh impossible for me to say just exactly what changed it or how it got changed, but a registry error is almost certainly the cause.
I don’t like to recommend registry fixes to people who aren’t absolute experts on navigating the registry, because there are so many things that can go so catastrophically wrong when people start traipsing through the Registry Editor. Fortunately, there’s a way to add keys to the registry without ever having to actually edit it, which I’ll get to in a minute. But no matter which way you do it, you’re still changing the registry, and it’s always a good idea to back it up before you do, just in case something happens. You can do this by creating a system restore point. If you don’t already know how to do that, visit tinyurl.com/l9xhhc4 for instructions, and follow the steps listed. Once your safety net is in place, and you feel comfortable that any change you make can be easily undone, it’s time to go and make the actual fix.
Windows has the ability to ingest information from files containing properly formatted registry keys, and apply them to the registry automatically for you. Such files have the extension .REG (for Registry, obviously). You can visit tinyurl.com/3865lj to obtain a .REG file that contains the keys necessary to fix your system’s problem, as well as instructions on how to apply the file’s content to your system.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.