Old Versions Of Flash Are Supposed To Work But Don't

I don't need Flash for any browser, but for playing Flash videos downloaded in/by RealPlayer. I've been on 2 forums where old versions were touted as working and not having the time bomb in them. I tried 32...171, 32...371, and 18...something--none worked. I uninstalled first, but a search of the C: drive turned up 110 occurrences of 'Flash.' Don't know if this has anything to do with the older versions not working. I know there's a thread here discussing a 'complete' method of uninstalling. I can try that at some point if necessary, but any help with the concept of older versions supposing to work would be appreciated.

I know the security concern; I'm not stupid. Please refrain from preaching at me about that issue. Thanks.

Macboatmaster, thanks for responding.

1. Concerning "a little late," Real told me that the videos would still play, I guess because Flash was built into their product; apparently not.

2. I did say that I needed Flash only for playing the videos in RealPlayer, not for browser use, so none of your comments in that regard apply.

3. Converting over 130 videos is a huge undertaking--not something I'll do if I can get around it.

4. I'll consider using another video player, but if the videos still have to be converted, I don't appear to have anything to gain.

5. Apparently you're telling me that Flash won't work in any way in current Windows, but people in other fora seem to be saying otherwise. I assume at least some of them are using current Windows, and for sure they're using older versions of Flash that don't have the time bomb in them.

Thanks again.

Macboatmaster, thanks again.

I'll take a closer look at your comments when I have more time.

Concerning VLC, see my item 4.

I was told on the MS forum that W10 keeps Flash from playing in any way/capacity.

Can you provide any advice about a Flash-like product called ruffle? A quick look at its website says that it's easy to use, but I saw something about putting a script somewhere. I'll take a closer look there later.

Thank you.

Macboatmaster, thanks again for hanging in here with me.

Haven't had a chance yet to look into the 'ruffle' thing or VLC.

I used a facility Real has to send them one of my videos. They wrote back saying it played for them without Flash being on their system. They suggested I download K-Lite Mega, and I did.

I know it's a bit much, but this is what I responded to Real:
"The videos still won't play in RealPlayer. The videos won't play directly from the Video folder in RealPlayer. They will play directly in the Video folder when told to play in Windows Media Player and MPC-HC (which was downloaded with K-Lite). A ton of optional settings come with K-Lite; I left them all alone. Is it possible that the videos would play in
RealPlayer if I changed a setting?

"I have 138 videos downloaded with RealPlayer. They're grouped into 11 playlists, and that's how I normally play the videos. Ideally, the objective is to play the videos in RealPlayer so I can easily play them in the playlists. Whatever way is required, converting them to another format with RealPlayer's conversion tool (would that leave them in my
playlists?) or moving them to another player and recreating the playlists, that's what I'll have to do. I would rather stick with RealPlayer. I guess I should say that I'm still using RealPlayer Cloud v17 (but I'm not using the Cloud feature) because when I upgraded to later versions, the playlists weren't there. Also RealPlayer pulled audio and video from
other places on my computer, and I had way more than 138 items in RealPlayer. It would take a long time to ID and remove those items, but the real killer was the lack of playlists. I know the functionality is supposed to be there, but it wasn't. My current version of RealPlayer meets my needs if we can just get the videos to play in RealPlayer. If you're going to tell me there's something else going on on my computer, I don't have a clue what that might be. Also, K-Lite apparently pulled all my RealPlayer videos into Windows Media Player, where I have playlists of videos I downloaded not using RealPlayer; I'm not crazy about that. I may have to uninstall K-Lite to get rid of that damage or restore a system image to fix that. What can you tell me about this whole thing?"

So, this is where I stand; apparently this isn't going to end quickly.

I did a remote session with a Real employee today. I don't think we really ever understood what the problem was, but at least the situation is functional now. He couldn't get things to work with my old version of RealPlayer, so he downloaded the current version. That was a problem at first, but he got it working. So the Flash videos play now without Flash being on my machine. However, I have to recreate the 11 playlists because even though the playlists show up on the RealPlayer product, the folder/database/whatever that contains info about the playlists is missing from my C: drive.

Thanks to those who responded.