I have found a video short on the internet. It's in Macromedia Flash 7
format. I want a simple, free way to save the video content to my hard
drive, preferrably in a format that can be replayed in Windows Media
Player. How can this be accomplished?

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 01 Oct 2004 09:09 PDT

griz...

There is no simple way to convert Flash content to be replayed
in Windows Media Player. There is a very simple way to save the
video in its original format, and it will replay in your browser
(not the entire web page...just the Flash video). Will that do?

sublime1-ga

Hi the_griz,
Saving swf content from the internet and then playing it in Windows
Media player is a two step process.
1) Retrieving the swf from your internet temporary files folder and
copying it to a more permanent place.  The location of the Internet
Temporary File folder depends on the browser used.  If you're using
Internet explorer follow the short instructions here on how to access
these files:
How to find and view Temporary Internet Files in Internet Explorer
http://compnetworking.about.com/od/windowsnetworking/ht/findtempfiles.htm

If you're using another browser such as Firefox or Mozilla, please
post a clarification request with which browser you're using and I'll
be sure to help.

2)Next, Use software to convert the swf to a format playable in
Windows Media Player.  I've found 2 pieces of shareware which do that,
listed below.

Magic Swf2Avi (shareware)
"Magic Swf2Avi is a powerful utility that uniquely supports to convert
Macromedia Flash SWF to AVI video file. With Magic Swf2Avi, an AVI
file in any resolution and any frame rate can be output from swf file,
so that you can use this video file in video edit program such as
After effects and Adobe Premiere."
homepage at http://www.softaward.com/911.html
download at http://www.softaward.com/download911.html

SWF2Video (shareware)
"SWF2Video is a powerful utility that uniquely supports to convert
Flash  SWF to AVI including movie clips, action scripts, human 
interactions and audio. The Mosquito sample created by SWF2Video V1.1
shows the movie clips and human interactions in the Flash  movie are
completely recorded during the conversion. The second sample shows
SWF2Video PRO 1.0 can output alpha channel  video to be used for
professional composition effects in  video post production. SWF2Video
Plug-in for Adobe Premiere  Pro enable to import SWF files directly
into Premiere projects  for compositions. To view the high quality
composition video  sample, please download here."
homepage at http://flashants.com/root/swf2video.shtml
download at http://flashants.com/download/download.shtml#swf2videopro

Search strategy:
swf to windows media
swf to avi
swf2avi
location of internet explorer temporary files

If you have any questions, please post a clarification request before
closing/rating my answer and I'll be happy to reply.

Sincerely,
AndyT

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Request for Answer Clarification by the_griz-ga on 01 Oct 2004 09:38 PDT

I am using firefox. My aplogies for not specifying. And thanks for the information.

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Clarification of Answer by andyt-ga on 01 Oct 2004 09:56 PDT

Hi again,
Glad it was helpful. The location of the firefox cache folder should be:
C:\Documents_and_Settings\%username%\Application_Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\default.wtu\Cache

Excellent work. Thanks.