I hate how many web sites abuse the power of Flash, and take over your PC the
second you visit a web site.

I would therefore like the ability to turn Flash on and off when it suits me.

Any suggestions

Colin

No suggestions. I have the same problem. Sometimes the stupid things interact
with my browser in a negative way. Searching all over adobe, everything is for
developers, not browser users. We are at their mercy. Either remove the
thing, or suffer their hauteur.

You could always try using IE 7.

2 reasons
1. Currently visiting any flash site with the flash9b.ocx enabled seems to
cause a crash to desktop
and
2. Assuming the eventually fix #1 IE 7 does allow you to micro manage add ons
like flash to turn them on and off

I know what you mean - the abuse of flash on the web has become so heinous as
to reduce browsing with Internet Explorer to a full-time job of right-clicking
flash animations and clearing the "Play" check mark. Frankly, I'm surprised
Microsoft hasn't put an end to this, as this kind of anti-user behavior is what
continues to drive users towards alternative platforms such as Firefox. And
this Flash issue is another example. If you want to regain control of your
browser, I recommend that you download and install Firefox and then install
"Flashblock". It's a small add-on that replaces flash animations with a play
button. If you want to see a flash presentation, then you can click play - if
not, then you can ignore it. Simple, but effective.

My only complaint is that it won't show the first frame of the animation. Now
that Adobe owns Macromedia, maybe their developers will take the HINT and
include a flash player plug-in that can be configured to do the same thing -
that is to say, allow users to configure the plug-in to show the first frame
plus a play button, and then let the users decide if they want to watch an
animation as they browse.