Flex Builder unable to find Flash Player

If you are using Flex Builder on Windows, you may run into an error where Flex Builder says it is unable to find the executable for Flash Player. The error will look something like the one below.

Flash Builder cannot locate the required version of Adobe Flash Player. You might need to install the FLash Player or reinstall Flash Builder.

Do you want to try and run your application with the current version?

This will give you an attempt to continue dialog with a yes or no option. If you click yes then you would get another error similar to the following.

Cannot run program "C:\Users\chris\Desktop\flashplayer_11_sa_debug_32bit.exe": CreateProcess error=2, The System cannot find the file specified

You can fix this by following the steps below.

1. Go to the Adobe website and download the standalone Flash Player Debugger edition.

2. Open up Notepad and insert some text (literally, anything).

3. Save the file as dummy.swf on your Desktop.

4. Open your Desktop and right click on the file. Select “open with…”

5. Browse to the location of the Flash Debugger you downloaded and select it, making sure to tick the “always open these types of file” option.

From now on, you should be able to run the application from Flash Builder.