Windows 8
Enable Flash in IE10 Metro Browser XDA Developers' Forum

Ever since the new Windows 8 was released, users are said to have mixed feelings about the new operating system, according to the XDA Developers' forum. But XDA recognised developer Marvin_S figures out how to get past Metro Browser's Flash restrictions on certain websites.

"As we all know Windows RT/8′s IE Metro browser has limited flash support based on a whitelist. However a lot of sites are not (yet) whitelisted and hence do not work as desired. So I did some digging in the whitelist mechanism and found a way to hack it," explains Marvin_S in a post on the forum.

To apply the hack, users should head over to the below path:

C:Users[USER_NAME]AppDataLocalMicrosoftInternetExplorerIECompatDataiecompatdata.xml. From here, users may add their favourite websites to the whitelist, in addition to support complete Flash. According to the post on the forum, the hack method will not only work on the desktop versions of Windows 8, but it will also work on RT versions such as Microsoft Surface.

Users can have a quick look at the method below:

  • Open Desktop IE10 type ALT --> Tools --> Compatibility View settings. Now UNCHECK the last checkmark which says: "Download updated compatibility list from Microsoft". If you perform this step you will be able to locally change the whitelist without getting overrriden.

Note: If the checkbox is ticked IE will override the custom whitelist back to default on each reboot.

  • The whitelist is named "iecompatdata.xml" and is located in the following path

%HOMEPATH%AppDataLocalMicrosoftInternet ExplorerIECompatData

Copy and paste in File Explorer or IE10 and alternatively open File Explorer and find in C: for "iecompatdata"

  • You can open and edit the aforementioned file directly with Notepad by pressing WIN+R and type the following

notepad"%HOMEPATH%AppDataLocalMicrosoftInternetExplorerIECompatData iecompatdata.xml

  • To add a website to the whitelist, you have to add your desired website inside the tags as follows:

YOURDESIREDDOMAIN.COM

  • Now, delete the browsing history by navigating to Open IE10 Metro and click WIN+I > Internet Options > Delete browsing history

Flash is now enabled in IE10 Metro browser on Windows 8 and RT devices.

[Source: XDA Developers' Forum]

Microsoft