The file extension ».SWF» is pronounced as »Swiff«, is an Adobe Flash file format. SWF files consist of animations or applets with various levels of interactivity and functionality.
The term “SWF” was an abbreviation for ShockWave Flash, which was later changed to Small Web Format.
SWF file format is basically for online use. These files are often used for online games that are played within a web browser and, for this purpose, Adobe makes add-ons available, such as Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Integrated Runtime to play SWF files in web browsers on systems. desktop operation. These include Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on the x86 architecture and ARM architecture (solo Google Chrome OS). Prior to 2015, it was quite easy to play a local SWF file on your computer; just drag and drop it into a browser window to play it.
But despite its popularity and use, Flash has 1000 vulnerabilities more, as a result, Adobe decided to retire Flash at the end of 2020 and all major browser manufacturers announced that they will also stop supporting Flash in 2020 in browsers.
When you try to play the SWF file on your desktop PC, you may notice that it is not so easy anymore. Most web browsers do not allow dragging and dropping such files onto their interface for playback.; those that allow it at this time (on 2019) will stop allowing it once Flash support is exhausted.
An example: when dragging a SWF file to the Chrome interface, you get a download notice and the Flash file won't play.
Then, if you have Flash files on your system, you may want to keep using these files even after Flash removal, so you have to look elsewhere to find a reliable option that works after 2020.
Nevertheless, remember that some SWF files are interactive games, while others may be tutorials or non-interactive ads, so not all SWF files are compatible with all SWF players.
Then, if you want to play the SWF file outside the browser, The first thing that comes to mind is to download Adobe Flash Player. But that player won't solve your problem because it will use ar browser to play SWF files; One player is required to play the SWF files independently.
Adobe products, as well as other SWF authoring applications, can open SWF files like Adobe Animate, formerly known as Adobe Flash , Dreamweaver, Flash Builder y After Effects. Another feature-packed commercial product that works with SWF files is Scaleform, which is part of Autodesk Game-ware, but it will not be a good idea to install Heavy Software application just to play Flash, but if you have already installed any of these applications, use to play Flash SWF.
Different programs may be required to open different SWF files
Solution 1: Adobe Flash Player content debugger
If you look in this direction, will access Adobe Flash Player, which plays the SWF file in the browser. Nevertheless, Adobe has a SWF player called Adobe Flash Player Projector Content Debugger or Adobe Standalone Flash Player.
Adobe hides the standalone Flash Player very well.
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Download the Adobe Flash Player Projector Content Debugger, go to the following link
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Look for the available options of operating systems such as Windows, Mac or Linux
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And now you should download Flash Player Projector content debugger.
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In Windows, will have an EXE file that does not need installation. You just have to double click on it to run it.
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You will get a simple Adobe Flash Player window. To open a SWF file, click File> Open or drag and drop on the window or … You can enter the path of a SWF file on the web or browse for a SWF file on your local system.
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Resize the window to zoom in if the flash object seems too small. Now, you can view and interact with the SWF file as you normally would.
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Right click on the Flash object or use the menu bar to control the Standard Options, like zoom settings, picture quality and full screen mode on and off.
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The best part: this Flash Player will continue to work in the future, even after web browsers remove Flash completely. It's not just a debugging tool for developers; is an extremely useful compatibility solution for anyone who needs Flash.
Solution 2: use Macromedia files
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Download Flash Player from the Macromedia Files for Windows website 10 and Mac from the following links according to your needs:
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Flash Player 29.0.0.140 – Posted on 04/10/2018
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Flash Player 29.0.0.113- Posted on 13/03/2018
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Flash Player 28.0.0.161- Posted on 02/06/2018
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Flash Player 28.0.0.137- Posted on 01/09/2018
- Flash Player 15.0.0.152 – Released on 9/9/2014 (Win Firefox y Mac)
- Flash Player 15.0.0.167 – Posted on 9/9/2014 (solo Win IE)
- Flash Player 13.0.0.201 – Released on 16/4/2014 (Mac only)
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Install and use it as a normal application of your operating system.
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Descarga SWF File Player
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Install the app.
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It will show a blank interface at startup and you should use File> Open to load the SWF files. Compressed and uncompressed SWF files are supported.
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SWF file player parses the file header and populates the information on the screen. Press the play button to start playback. If it's a game, you can start playing, and if it is an application, you can start using it immediately.
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You may have problems if a SWF file needs to download content from the Internet, as it depends on the availability of the server. It should work if the server is still working.
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Use F11 to change full screen mode.
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As a player, you may want to check out the flash game preservation project Flash point as an alternative. This project collects Flash games from the Internet to preserve them; You can download a program from the project website to play these preserved Flash games directly in the program interface. The main objective of this project is to preserve flash games.
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Descarga VLC Media Player
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Install and run VLC Media Player.
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Right click on the SWF file and choose »Open with» or «Open» if there is no program associated with the format and navigate to VLC Media Player from the list of options that appear.
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Otherwise, abra VLC Media Player, click Media and then click Open File and navigate to the SWF file.
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Download and install IrfanView
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Then download and install the additional official plugin for Flash from the link below
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Can open Flash files up to version 9
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Open your SWF file using IrfanView by dragging and dropping or from the file menu.
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Open the SWF file from the File menu
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OR Drag and drop the file SWF and iSwiff.
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To use the full screen, select »Full screen» in the menu »Window«.
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To get out of the “full screen” presione Cmd-F.
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To exit iSwiff you just have to press Cmd-Q.
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Select a SWF file in the Finder and Ctrl-click the file to use »Get Info«, you can choose iSwiff as the default application for all Flash files.
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Descargue e instale Freemake Video Converter
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Open it and convert the SWF file.
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You can also use FileZigZag, which works as an online SWF converter.
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You can also use Adobe Animate to convert a SWF file to EXE to make the file easier to run on computers that do not have Flash Player installed. It can be done through the program menu option File> Create project or.
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Flajector and SWF Tools are a pair of alternative SWF to EXE converters.
Solution 3: SWF file player
One of the best options for the Windows operating system is the free SWF file player. This program is free and requires .NET Framework and Shockwave Flash Object.
Solution 4: use media players
You can use different media players to play the SWF file. An example is the VLC Media Player, which is a free and open source video player that is also compatible with other media, and it's especially good when it comes to playing less common formats.
GOM Player and Media Player Classic play SWF perfectly (MPC is included in the XP Codec Pack). You can try your luck with other media players.
Solution 5: use IrfanView para Windows
IrfanView is a compact free graphical viewer, Fast and Innovative for Windows
Solution 6: iSwiff for MAC
iSwiff uses the Adobe Flash web plug-in (NPAPI edition) to play the movies. The Flash plug-in was once part of Mac OS X, but you can also find it in the latest version of MacUpdate. Download and install iSwiff
There are also other Flash file openers for MacOS. SWF & FLV Player and Elmedia Player are two examples, but since they are mainly media players for video and audio files, I couldn't use them to play SWF based games.
Solution 7: convert SWF files
You can convert SWF to MP4 or any other video format. Most free video file converters can save SWF file to video formats like MP4, MOV, HTML5 y AVI, some even allow you to convert a SWF file to MP3 or other audio file formats. There are many tools online, as well as SWF authoring tools you can use to do this.
