Two instances of Flash detected

[rufford155]

Both "Programs & Features" and "Iobit Uninstaller" are listing two instances :

03/09/2019  - 32.0.0.238  -  20.1MB

11/09/2019  - 32.0.0.255  -  20.3MB

Can I safely uninstall the first one ?

Thanks.

[jeromiec83223024 · Accepted solution]

So, there are three flavors of browser plugins: 

• NPAPI - For Netscape-based browsers like Firefox and Safari
• PPAPI - For Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome and Opera
• ActiveX - For Internet Explorer and Edge on Windows

In general, you'd install Flash Player, set it to automatically update, and it would keep things at the current version.

I could see you having between one and three variants of Flash Player installed in parallel, depending on what browsers you use and the version of Windows you're on.  It's weird that they're not the same version, especially if they're set to update automatically.  I'm guessing that's what's going on here, that you have two flavors of Flash Player installed.

You can always uninstall Flash Player and the reinstall it if you need it.  It's not really a big deal, and you can always download Flash again from here: 

https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer

[rufford155]

Thanks for your reply.

[rufford155]

Thanks for your reply, but it has got stranger.

The laptop I was writing about is abroad.

I am now in the UK on an identical laptop which at first only had the 238 version.

Went to your website, downloaded and installed latest version which is 255.

Now this laptop also has both version installed !

It would appear that 255 is not overwriting 238 but this has never, ever happened before.

Question remains, can I uninstall the older version ?

[rufford155]

After the latest update it's all change again (UK only so far)

I now have Adobe Flash Player 32 NPAPI and PPAPI both 32.0.0.255

I believe one is for IE & Firefox and the other is for Chrome & Vivaldi.

So probably all is well but I would be grateful if someone would confirm this, thank you.

[jeromiec83223024]

Yep. IE and Edge use ActiveX (if you're on Win10, they're baked into the OS), Firefox uses NPAPI and Chromium-based browsers use PPAPI

[rufford155]

Many thanks jeromiec83223024. 

I understand now why I need two versions.

Only puzzle is why one of the identical laptops at one time only had one version and the other had two when they have always both had exactly the same browsers !