Getting started with plug-ins

Plug-ins extend a browser's ability to show interactive audiovisual content in Web pages. If you have ever seen a movie clip in a browser window, your browser was most likely using a plug-in.

Pre-installed plug-ins

Opera comes with the popular Shockwave Flash plug-in from Macromedia pre-installed.

Installing additional plug-ins

If you come across a Web page which requires a plug-in not installed on your computer, a button like this will appear on that page.

  1. Click the button to get information about the required plug-in
  2. Download the plug-in
    1. If the plug-in is recognized, click to download the plug-in from the plug-in provider's Web site
    2. If the plug-in is not recognized, go to Opera's plug-in page to find information about the plug-in, or use Opera's integrated Web search to find information about the particular plug-in
  3. Install the plug-in on your computer
    1. If asked for browser, choose Opera or Netscape
    2. If asked for path, browse to the folder where Opera is installed and select the "plug-in" folder
    3. Select About Opera under Help on the main menu to check where your plug-in folder is
  4. When the plug-in has been installed, return to Opera and click Preferences under File
  5. Select "Multimedia", then click
  6. Click if asked about associating file types
  7. Finally, click to exit Preferences
  8. Reload the page to view it with the newly installed plug-in

If you are still unable to see the content, see Opera's on-line information about plug-ins.

Learn more about plug-ins