FLASH PLAYER EOL

[Guest]

Good morning.

Would you, please, help me with my problem?

At the link https://helpx.adobe.com/pl/flash-player.html I checked whether I had FLASH PLAYER. I have FLASH PLAYER, version 32.0.0.465, installed in my laptop. I do not know very well how FLASH functions.
I have a browser Google Chrome.

I recently read in your website articles referring to changes in using FLASH.
Am I obliged to uninstall my FLASH PLAYER? Will I do anything against the law or violate any of your rights if I do not uninstall FLASH PLAYER?

Yours sincerely,
Mariusz Wnorowski

[remco82641]

You are not required to uninstall it. But it will no longer work after January 12th, so there is not much point in keeping it either.

Flash is used to display interactive multimedia content on some websites. But most sites are no longer using it. 

[Nancy OShea]

Flash Player End of Life:

https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html

I removed my Flash Player 2-3 years ago when browsers began blocking it for security reasons. I haven't missed it and chances are you won't either.  Other than a few old websites and games, Flash is not used for anything important.  Even if you don't uninstall it your Flash Player will stop working.  And your operating system will disable it.

Hopefully that puts your mind at ease.

❄   ☃   ❄

Happy Holidays!

[jeromie_adobe · Accepted solution]

Flash Player will stop loading content from the open web on January 12th.  Adobe has already shipped the last Flash Player update, and we officially end support on December 31. 

Like your web browser and operating system, Flash Player is tasked with processing untrusted content.  We're constantly hardening the product to stay ahead of the latest security research and intelligence from the field.  That work stops on December 31. We'd highly recommend that you uninstall it, just to be on the safe side.

There's a little complexity in terms how Flash gets distributed and uninstalls. 

For copies of Flash Player distributed by Adobe, you can run our uninstallers:

Uninstall Flash Player - Windows:
https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html

Uninstall Flash Player - Mac:
https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-mac-os.html

Google bundles a copy of Flash Player in Chrome.  Flash is disabled by default, and a future update to Chrome will remove support for PPAPI plug-ins in general, and remove the encapsulated copies of Flash inside Chrome. 

On Windows 8 and higher, Microsoft ships a copy of Flash Player for Internet Explorer and Legacy Edge.  That version of Flash Player can only be updated or removed by Microsoft.  There's a patch available that you can run manually to remove Flash: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4577586/update-for-removal-of-adobe-flash-player.  If you do nothing, Microsoft will eventually make this patch mandatory and it will run automatically.  

For modern Chromium-based Edge, it works like Chrome.  Microsoft bundles a copy of Flash Player in that browser, and they'll eventually remove it in a future update. 

Hope that helps!

[jeromie_adobe]

Also, just for completeness: 

The original EOL announcement from 2017: 

https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/

The consumer EOL FAQ: 

https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html