Improve the web animation and video performance of your PC

Flash Player’s settings are divided into a couple of different but overlapping areas, accessed in different ways. We will start with an ad-hoc method, which is useful for modifying settings on the fly. To start, visit a website that has some Flash content – we are using Computeractive’s Youtube channel. Click a link to watch any video, then right-click the playback window and choose Settings from the pop-up menu. Note that this option is accessed in the same way on any Flash element, including animations and adverts.

An Adobe Flash Player Settings dialogue box will appear in the middle of the Flash element (which, in this case, means the Youtube playback window). Though perhaps not immediately obvious, there are five navigation tabs running along the bottom of this dialogue. The middle one – Local Storage, represented by a folder icon – is selected by default. The figure at the bottom right shows how much space on the computer’s hard disk is being used by the Flash element displayed in active website – a mere 2KB at the moment. The slider control above is used to the maximum amount of local storage the Flash element can occupy: the default is 100KB (again, a tiny amount). If you are experiencing problems with a particular Flash content (like choppy Youtube playback, perhaps), then click and drag the slider to the right to increase the amount – all the way to ‘unlimited’, if you want.

Now click the left-most tab: Display. This settings panel controls a single but very useful tick box, labelled ‘Enable hardware acceleration’. With this ticked, the execution display of Flash content should, in theory, be faster and smoother. However, the use of hardware acceleration can also cause problems, particularly if your computer doesn’t have the most up-to-date graphics card drivers. If you experience problems – such as distortion when watching Youtube videos – then disable hardware acceleration by removing the tick from this box.

The second tab along is labelled Privacy – click it. The settings here are used to determine whether or not a particular website can have access to your computer’s microphone and webcam (if attached, obviously). Youtube, for example, offers users the option to record and upload videos directly, which requires access to the webcam and mic. Other websites, though, may have no business trying to use these devices. Make your selection by clicking the Allow or Deny radio button and then, if you want Flash to remember the setting for this particular website, click to tick the Remember box.

The settings on the remaining two tabs are used to tweak the microphone’s recording level and the selected webcam. In the unlikely event there is more than one webcam attached to your PC, select the desired one from the dropdown menu on the last tab. On the microphone tab, drag the slider control while talking into the mic to set the recording level: a high green bar is good, but if it moves into the yellow or red, recording could be distorted. If you are recording in close quarters, meanwhile, ticking the Reduce Echo box could improve clarity. Click Close.

Various Flash settings are managed and applied globally, meaning they affect all Flash content encountered online. In Chrome or Firefox, these can be accessed by right-clicking any Flash element and choosing Global Settings from the pop-up menu. In Internet Explorer (and all other browsers), they are displayed by visiting a dedicated area of Adobe’s website – you’ll find it by clicking here. Click the links down the left-hand side to explore. As we said, there is some overlap with the settings already explored, though finer controls are on offer here. Click the Web Privacy panel link, for example, and you can manage the list of sites allowed access to your PC’s webcam and mic. And if you get annoyed by Flash’s seemingly endless updates, use the dropdown menu on the Global Notifications Settings panel to opt for less-frequent nagging.