A way to run AQ trainers after Adobe EoL

[Doomelf]

Hello, I'm here to show you a way to use AQ trainers even after Adobe Flash Player EoL and Windows Flash Removal Update KB4577586. For the purposes of this tutorial I will be featuring the AEDab 2.2 trainer, which I recommend. You will also need:

- Flash Player (integrated in Windows 8 and 10)
- Windows 10 20H2 (2004) or lower ISO
- Oracle VM Virtualbox
- Process Explorer (to stop VB auto date / time correction)
- mms.cfg file, which should be saved in:

For 32-bit Windows -> %WINDIR%\System32\Macromed\Flash
For 64-bit Windows -> %WINDIR%\SysWow64\Macromed\Flash

If the file is missing just use the one I have provided. It is set to allow all Flash content to be played on the PC. I have included the settings for the Windows 10 VM setup in the attachments to not make this post too long. The steps to follow are:

1. On the top of VB select "Start" and Windows 10 will begin installation. Note that you can't create an offline (local) account in Windows 10 unless you unplug your PC network cable before starting the installation. This is important for those of you who don't want a poorly named (cropped) personal folder name, which the Microsoft account creates otherwise. You can always switch to a Microsoft account after installation and that won't mess up your personal folder name so I highly recommend taking this step.

2. Go to Settings -> Apps -> Programs and Features -> "Turn Windows features on or off" and install .NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0) and .Net framework 4.8 Advanced Services. After doing so you can plug the network cable.

3. Open Windows Services and stop + disable Windows Update. You don't want to install any updates, because it will auto-install Windows Flash Removal Update KB4577586, which blocks Flash from running.

4. Now go to the top menu in the VB window and click on Devices -> "Insert Guest Additions CD image...". This will allow the setup for it to show in This PC. Now go there and open "CD Drive - Virtualbox Guest Additions". Then start the setup for "VBoxWindowsAdditions". After installation you will need to reboot the VM.

5. Go to Machine -> Settings -> General -> Advanced tab in the top menu and change Shared Clipboard and Drag'n'Drop to "Bidirectional". This will allow you to copy and paste from your host OS to the VM. Use it to export Process Explorer to the VM desktop and mms.cfg to the file path listed above for 32 / 64 bit OS.

6. Run the Process Explorer setup [procexp.exe (32 bit) / procexp64.exe (64 bit)] as Administrator, find "VBoxService.exe", right click on it and select "Kill Process Tree". Doing this will prevent VB from auto-correcting the time and date, to be edited later. This works until you restart / power off the VB OS.

7. Now go to Windows Settings -> Time & Language and uncheck everything. You can also change the time zone to your own, for convenience. Then, click on "Change" for "Set the date and time manually" and input a desired time and date before 12th January 2021.

Virus Scan Process Explorer: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/...0f26/detection
Virus Scan mms.cfg: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/...8bf7/detection
Virus Scan Virtualbox Windows Setup: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/...5a70/detection

With all of this set up you are now free to start AEDab and everything should be working as before Flash EoL. Don't forget AEDab has options to change the AQ page it uses to load the game as well as the engine version. There is a new address for the game currently on the AQ homepage, but the old one works for now.

[[MPGH]meme]

/approved //2short

[Zamoraich]

Holy moly. That's a lot of instructions.

Are there any benefits to using this method as compared to using RunAsDate?
Plus running what seems to be a virtual machine can be extremely taxing on PC memory and CPU if I'm not mistaken, and that may lead to AE games lagging like hell on less powerful PCs.

[yinyang021]

Or you can just change the date on your computer. Change it to Jan 10,2021. Your trainers will still work.

[Doomelf]

Or you can just change the date on your computer. Change it to Jan 10,2021. Your trainers will still work.

Yes, you could do that, but the thing is version 20H2 (2004) of Windows 10 will be the last to have Flash built in. You can either stay on this one and have system vulnerabilities just so you can use trainers on a non-VM Windows 10 or upgrade to a newer version with no Flash. The only option for the latter will be to use a VM.

[herefordownload]

Don't see any other posts here confirming this works, so I'll be the first one;
Did it this afternoon, instructions were clear and everything is working fine for me.
Thank you for this

[Doomelf]

Don't see any other posts here confirming this works, so I'll be the first one;
Did it this afternoon, instructions were clear and everything is working fine for me.
Thank you for this

I'm glad it worked for you, but then again I was having issues making it work after doing a clean install of my PC. I did everything as described in my original post, but Flash refused to allow AEDab to load AQ. I was getting the Flash icon as if it was still blocked. I did find a much simpler way to allow Flash to work again though!

For this new method you won't be needing mms.cfg or Process Explorer. After doing everything from steps 1-4 and changing the VB setting to Bidirectional, as mentioned in step 5, just use the program FlashPatch by darktohka on ******. It's a very simple program that removes the killswitch Adobe put into Flash to stop it from working.

[Moscov]

IST WORKING IN AQ

[ssjahmed]

this is working 100% and i can vouch for this method thank you so much doom the instructions were clear even a beginner like me was able to get it done

[zoby77]

im stuck on part 4. i have version 6.1 of VMBox and there is no devices tab

[Doomelf]

You see it, when you start Windows in VB. The options of File, Machine, View, Input, Devices and Help are listed in the top left.