Folder and file operations with Flash / Air application

I am a newbie to Flash programming and would like to know whether the possibilities of Flash / Air applications are enough for my task.

I need a way to access (change/modify/delete) user files and folders from an application hosted on a remote site. Typical usage scenario would be the following: user enters some html page, application asks for user permission to access his file system and makes some changes.

Is Flash good for this ? -- does regular Flash embedded in htm开发者_如何学JAVAl has access to a user file system ? -- what about AIR application ?

Is there an other way to solve my problem other than using Java applets?

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Flash has no access to user files, AIR does. But AIR app needs to be notified about user activity in browser. There are ways to do that, for example, LocalConnection class.