I used to be able to play videos on YouTube without problems from a
limited user account, but for a couple of months they have only been
working when I start my browser with administrator privileges. Unless
I do that, I keep getting a message that says:

"Hello, you either have JavaScript turned off or an old version of
Adobe's Flash Player. Get the latest Flash player."

I have been writing emails to YouTube's support till my fingers bleed,
telling them that they got a bug on their website, but they insist on
there being a problem being with my computer.

I have been talking to some guy named Mydhili from YouTube support for
a while, and I am posting the correspondence here, so you know what
I've tried so far (and to show how fruitless it was):

"Videos play fine when browser is run with administrator privileges,
but error message about an obsolete flash version is displayed when
browser is run from a limited user account.

Browser: ie7
IssueType: play
Language: en
abuse: no
allvideos: yes
conntype: cable
errormsg:
known_issue: yes
os: xp_pro
username: mshofmann
videolink:"

"Hi there,

Thanks for your email. This could be caused by a firewall or internet
blocker. These types of programs could block YouTube's media stream.
If you have a firewall, you might want to temporarily disable it to
see if the videos load. If the videos do load with the firewall
disabled, you would need to adjust the firewall settings to allow
streaming media from YouTube to pass the firewall. If you're not sure
how to do this, please contact the manufacturer of your firewall.

Hope this helps,

Mydhili
The YouTube Team"

"Hi Mydhili,

I am not using any firewall or internet blocker. I can watch flash
videos on other websites without problems, for example on Google
Video. It even used to work on YouTube for months, until you guys
apparently decided to upgrade to a higher flash version, and since
that day it hasn't been working any more. It only works if the browser
is run with admin privileges.

Maybe you want to see for yourself: Go to YouTube from a limited user
account (not a power user or admin account), and you will see that it
does not work.

Best regards,

Matthias"

"Hi Matthias,

Thanks for your email. =To help me diagnose your issue, please click
or copy and paste the following link into your browser:

http://www.youtube.com/swf_test.html

This will generate some code under the Loading video player. Please
note that this video is designed to remain in that state and will
never play.

Please copy and paste the code that is generated in your reply to this
email.

Regards,

Mydhili
The YouTube Team"

"Hi Mydhili!

When I run the browser from a limited user account, I get the
following message for the link you have sent me:

No Flash detected..
cannot get ShockWaveFlash ActiveXObject
axo GetVariable version Failed
returned version:0

SWF Detect Flash version is: WIN 9,0,124,0

But there's no loading video player displayed. However, when I run the
browser with admin privileges, I do get a loading video player, and
the message displayed below is:

cannot get ShockWaveFlash ActiveXObject object for 15
cannot get ShockWaveFlash ActiveXObject object for 14
cannot get ShockWaveFlash ActiveXObject object for 13
cannot get ShockWaveFlash ActiveXObject object for 12
cannot get ShockWaveFlash ActiveXObject object for 11
cannot get ShockWaveFlash ActiveXObject object for 10
got ShockWaveFlash ActiveXObject object for 9
good version:9
SWF Detect Flash version is: WIN 9,0,124,0

Thanks for looking into that issue! :-)

Best regards,

Matthias"

"Hi Matthias,

Thanks for your reply. Looks like this is caused by a firewall or
internet blocker. These types of programs could block YouTube's media
stream. If you have a firewall, you might want to temporarily disable
it to see if the videos load. If the videos do load with the firewall
disabled, you would need to adjust the firewall settings to allow
streaming media from YouTube to pass the firewall. If you're not sure
how to do this, please contact the manufacturer of your firewall.

It's possible that the admin account on your computer allows you to
disable the firewall and watch videos while the other accounts don't
have enough privileges to disable the firewall. Please adjust these
settings and you should be able to watch videos on YouTube.

Hope this helps,

Mydhili
The YouTube Team"

"Hi Mydhili,

have you given up on the bug on YouTube's website? It still doesn't
work, but in case that might help you, videos play fine when they are
embedded in a user profile, but not otherwise. For example, the video
on this profile plays without problems:

http://www.youtube.com/user/thaomusic

But when I try to play the following one, I get the message about my
Flash player being outdated:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57OtoBN_Jig

There seem to be other people with the same problem, and one of them
also says that videos on YouTube suddenly stopped working although
everything worked fine before:

http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=es&forum...

Best regards,

Matthias"

"Hi there,

Thanks for your email. We have found that the users with ad-blocking
software enabled may not be able to see videos due to a conflict with
our flash detection code. And, you might also try disabling any
softwares like Web Accelerator or Ad blocking software which might be
causing this issue.

Hope this helps,

Mydhili
The YouTube Team"

"Hello Mydhili,

the problem with YouTube still persists, what's going to happen next?
I still can't play videos on YouTube without administrator privileges,
while it works on all other video sites! When are you finally going to
fix that bug on your website? It's really annoying to have to start my
browser as an administrator just for YouTube!

Best regards,

Matthias"

"Hi there,

Thanks for your email. As mentioned earlier, this is a localized issue
with your system and not a bug on our side. Please provide the
privileges to all profiles on your system to able to access
YouTube.com.

Hope this helps,

Mydhili
The YouTube Team"

"Hi Mydhili,

I just completely uninstalled Flash using Adobe's uninstaller,
rebooted my machine and then reinstalled Flash, but I am still getting
that message about no Flash being installed. My other computer has a
clean install of Windows XP with Flash installed, and the problem is
the same.

Videos on other websites play without problem, and it even used to
work on YouTube until you guys did some strange update some months
ago. Now the videos only play with admin privileges!

When are you finally going to fix that bug?

Best regards,

Matthias"

The answer to my last email is still pending, but I don't expect it to
be very helpful. And if you have read the emails posted above, you may
be able to understand why. So just in case anyone from YouTube is
reading this:

- I DO NOT HAVE ANY FIREWALL OR AD BLOCKING SOFTWARE ON MY COMPUTER!
- I DO HAVE THE MOST RECENT VERSION OF FLASH INSTALLED!
- THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH MY COMPUTER!
- THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH YOUR WEBSITE!
- YOUR SUPPORT AND YOUR ONLINE HELP CENTER ARE USELESS!

Best regards,

Matthias