Adobe Flash, the multimedia software platform that fed as many pre-YouTube animated videos as Homestar Runner, is an officially old technology. On December 31, 2020, Adobe stopped supporting the software, and now Microsoft is telling all Windows 10 users that it’s time to abandon it, if they haven’t already.
A new Windows 10 update from Microsoft, currently available through its Update catalog, permanently removes Flash from the operating system according to Windows Latest, but only for Windows 10 versions 1903 and earlier and multiple versions of Windows Server. The same patch will be released on Windows Update next month or later and will be available through the Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) sometime in early 2021. (The update should also be available for version 1909, but it is unclear why the patch for that version doesn’t appear on the Update Catalog page.) the update will be optional, but will move to the recommended updates a few months later.
Applying the update will only remove the Adobe Flash Player that was installed for your version of Windows – not if you installed it manually from another source, says Microsoft. Once the update is applied, Adobe Flash will be removed from the Control Panel and Windows 10 users will not be able to roll back the update. Users can also uninstall Flash via Adobe website.
If it is absolutely necessary to reinstall Flash again, you will need to reset your device to an earlier version system restore point. If you don’t have a restore point, make sure to do one before applying the Flash removal update.
By the end of the month, Microsoft will also have removed Adobe Flash Player from its new Edge browser. “Starting in January 2021, Adobe Flash Player will be disabled by default and all previous versions KB4561600 launched in June 2020 will be blocked. Downloadable resources related to Adobe Flash Player that are hosted on Microsoft websites will no longer be available, ” said Microsoft.
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Microsoft Edge Legacy and Internet Explorer 11 users must also have received their last security update for Adobe Flash on or before December 2020. Google Chrome already abandoned Flash, along with Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari. Safari stopped supporting Flash in September 2020 with version 14. If you try to download the Flash plug-in from the Adobe website, your browser will prevent you from doing so.
In addition, Adobe will block Flash content will run on Flash Player starting January 12, 2021 to “help protect users’ systems”, says. Since macOS and Windows no longer receiving Flash security updates, it makes sense to do so, considering that it is now an extinct piece of technology.
Developed by FutureWave before being acquired by Macromedia and later by Adobe, Flash was the way to incorporate sophisticated animations, video players and video games into websites during the late 90s and early 2000s. It paved the way for websites entirely immersive and interactive features that are the norm today. But the proliferation of bigger and better platforms like HTML5, OpenFL and Unity has slowly started to make Flash look out of date. Adobe renamed its Flash authoring environment as Adobe Animate in 2015 to expand support for HTML5 and encourage developers to create with new web standards instead of Flash.
Most of what you find on a website today is not Flash, but HTML5 or another open standard that takes much less time to render web pages. Modern authoring environments are not only drastically less CPU intensive, but something like HTML5 doesn’t need a browser plug-in to work, unlike Flash. HTML5 works natively with all browsers and is also compatible with SEO.
Adobe will continue to support Animate – and in case you’re wondering, Homestar Runner It’s still alive and kicking. Also the Internet archive already preserved over 1,000 flash items, including classics like Badger, All your bases belong to us, and Peanut butter Jelly Time. I have not seen Salad fingers on the list, but there are already a lot of episodes on David Finch YouTube Channel.