If your shape files appear in preview mode but not when posting your SWF to the desktop, it is 95% of the time caused by missing local flash player security settings.
To setup your Flash Player security settings you can use the following steps pulled from our GMaps Plugin learning center article:Â http://gmapsplugin.com/learning/localremote.html
A “Local” shape file is one that is stored on your local computer and not a remote web server. This configuration is recommended for testing and not production deployments because it requires the following user configuration for every computer.
1. Open the Flash Player security sandbox settings:
CLICK HERE
2. With the security folder selected, click “Add Location”
3. Click Browse for Folder and either select the folder that you would like to enable, or just the drive. If you select the drive, any sub folders are granted access.
4. You can now close your browser without any further configuration.
5. You must do these steps for Internet Explorer and one non-IE web browser. The reason is Internet Explorer uses a different Flash Player controller than browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and others.