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I have noticed that in all Steam games you can press shift+tab and then can use Steam to go to websites and stuff.

When I was recently in a game I heard someone say they were listening to Pandora radio, but when I tried it, it tells me I need to install the newest version of Adobe Flash player.

Other HTML5 versions also dont work in the Steam browser.

Is there a way to install Flash for the Steam browser?

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  • When I play Steam games and listen to Pandora, I use my actual browser to play music. Steam and Flash don't seem to get along.
    – KOVIKO
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:10
  • so is it impossible to do it through steam? i just thought itd be cool if i could shift-tab to change the song instead of alt-tabbing out and taking more time
    – Tom Prats
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:13
  • If you navigate to this URL with your steam browser, it should install flash for you: store.steampowered.com/gotflash. I can't test to see if that will allow you to play pandora right now since I'm at work.
    – l I
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:26
  • it gets me to the download page, but then the window never pops up, does steam block popups/downloads?
    – Tom Prats
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:30
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    and why'd i get a downvote?
    – Tom Prats
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:32

2 Answers 2

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As the Steam browser doesn't come with a copy of Flash, it will need to be installed manually - this can be done by following these instructions from the Steam website in your normal web browser (ie: Google Chrome/Firefox/Safari/IE).

  • Navigate to the Adobe Flash website for "Other Versions"

  • Select your operating system, for example "Windows 7/Vista/XP/2008/2003"

  • Select "Flash Player for Other Browsers" from the second drop down

  • Click the "Download Now" button to begin the download

  • Install Flash for Other Browsers

  • Once the installation has completed, you will need to restart Steam in order for the plugin installation to take effect

After following through the above steps, I was able to watch videos on YouTube. I wasn't able to test Pandora Radio as it is not available in my region but so long as it is Flash based the above should allow it to work.

Regarding HTML5 support in the Steam browser, this should be supported - the Steam browser is based off Webkit which does support HTML5. To help validate what the issue is in relation to your ability to load HTML5 content within the overlay, browse to the YouTube HTML5 status page;

http://www.youtube.com/html5

This will give you an information page which includes a small checker at the bottom which will confirm your compatibility with the HTML5 video tag, h.264 codec, and WebM;

enter image description here

To enable WebM/h264 compatibility in the Steam Overlay you must use the beta version of Steam as per this thread.

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7
  • as posted in the comments above, after clicking "install flash for other browsers" nothing happens because the windows does not popup. orrrrrr am i supposed to do all of this outside of the steam browser?
    – Tom Prats
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:42
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    Do this in any browser that isn't the Steam browser. I used Google Chrome but IE/Firefox/Safari should be sufficent. The steps above are simply installing Flash for 'Other Browsers' - once it is installed and Steam has been restarted Steams' browser should detect it and use it
    – kalina
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:44
  • thanks just figured that out and it's working now! can you edit your question to let people know to do it in another browser, since that is the problem i had
    – Tom Prats
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:49
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    done! - I've added some stuff on checking HTML5 support as well, the chances are that you're missing the h264 codec within the Steam browser
    – kalina
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:55
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    A quick look through Google doesn't reveal how you'd get this particular codec installed for the Steam browser, when I test in Chrome it is installed but in Steam it's not, I suspect installing the codec for one of the other browsers would fix it, as the codec is probably built into Google Chrome
    – kalina
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 19:59
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What I do is to relog (Click Steam Top-Left and then click Exit then I log in again). I hope this works for you too.

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    This does not address how to get Flash working with Steam.
    – Frank
    Commented Jan 21, 2013 at 20:45

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