Google Chrome recently decided to upgrade my Adobe Flash to version 10.1, which I asked it to do because I enjoy using up-to-date (not bleeding-edge technology, but close to it). Shortly thereafter, I noticed that every time I went to a webpage containing one or more audio-bearing flash elements, all the other audio on my system would be shushed to a near whisper, including Foobar2000. This is extremely aggravating for me, since I constantly listen to music in the background, no matter what I’m doing. It took me a while to narrow it down to Flash content, and even longer to figure out it had to do with the upgrade

As it turns out, Flash 10.1 makes use of a facility in Windows 7 that allows applications to notify the system of incoming communications. The intended purpose of this, I suspect, is for applications like Skype to turn down other system sounds while you are making a call. Well, Flash has no right touching this feature! If you go to Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, Change System Sounds, you will find a “Communications” tab. On that tab, you can set Windows 7’s action to “Do nothing” for incoming communications. This is a workaround for the issue, however it is not a solution — what if you also run Skype, and want the audio to dim accordingly with a proper application? I consider this a bug in Flash 10.1, and will be pursuing it as such.