14 DAY TRIAL // Adobe has finally managed to fix the issue plaguing some Internet Explorer users running the Flash Player 10.3 plugin. Users running certain video cards discovered issues with how Flash content was displayed in IE9 with hardware acceleration enabled.
Adobe acknowledged the issue a couple of weeks ago, shortly after Flash Player 10.3 was released and later published a test build which promised to fix the problem.
It is now certain that the issue has been fixed and has pushed the patched Flash Player 10.3.181.16 through the official update channels and making it available for download.
"Flash Player 10.3.181.16 for Windows Internet Explorer is now available," Adobe announced.
"This release addresses an issue with hardware acceleration on some systems with Intel HD Graphics adapters when viewing SWF content in Internet Explorer 9. With Flash Player 10.3.181.14 installed, SWF content appears in the upper-left corner of the screen," it added.
Adobe Flash Player 10.3 brought several new features, but for some IE9 users it also brought quite a lot of headaches. Flash content was displayed in the corner of the screen rather than at its appropriate location in the page.
The issue had to do with hardware acceleration, introduced in IE9, which Adobe Flash Player 10.3 supports as well. Hardware acceleration uses the GPU to render and process content on web pages, leading to a significant performance increase.
However, as any gamer will tell you, graphic card drivers are a fickle beast. In this case, some Intel graphic adapters, when using older drivers, caused the issues in IE9.
Adobe recognized the problem and instructed users to update their drivers or disable hardware acceleration altogether, as a temporary fix. A Flash Player build which should have resolved the issues was released later and, after testing, Adobe is confident that its patch works, so it's releasing it for everyone.
Adobe 10.3.181.16 for Internet Explorer (Active X) is available for download here.