Self-Deleting Flashplayer12 Installation Package

Question

Flashplayer 12's installation package, when downloaded and executed from a user's computer, deletes itself on completion of the installation ... why would an installation package do this (consider that such a download could serve as a marker of date/time of the package installation and/or content from which a PC configuration could be restored, or duplicated)?  Is it possible that the Flashplayer 12 installation package assumes that it is being web installed as opposed to downloaded and installed from the local machine, and that this is, in fact, a bug in the install package?

C_F_McBlob · Answer

It's a "Stub" installer, and ALL stub installers self-delete. VLC, Firefox, both use stub installers now, which delete upon initialization of the download. Flash Player stub installers have done this since 2005 that I know of. And if you use the stub installer, it IS a web install. Thewre si no other way. you CAN'T install Flash Playe as a 1mb file. It's eighteen times that big as a FULL download and 54 times as big fully installed.

Windows System Restore keeps track of what was installed and when, right down to the second it was installed.

Additionally Windows "datestamps" the installed files.

You can see this in your Control Panel:

as well as "timestamping" the files in the folders where they're installed:

If you MUST HAVE a 17mb file to keep on hand in case of emergency (here's a hint: if you do a System Restore to a time BEFORE you downloaded it, WIndows will likely erase it), the FULL installers are here:

Flash Player for ActiveX (Internet Explorer)

Flash Player Plug-in (All other browsers)

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