Adobe Flash, the multimedia software platform that powered so many pre-YouTube animation videos, such as Homestar Runner, is officially old technology. As of December 31, 2020, Adobe stopped supporting the software, and now Microsoft is telling every Windows 10 user it’s time to drop it if they haven’t already.
A new Windows 10 update from Microsoft, currently available through Update Catalog, permanently removes Flash from the operating system according to Windows Newest, but only for Windows 10 versions 1903 and earlier and different versions of Windows Server. The same patch will be rolled out via Windows Update in the coming month 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’s unclear why that version’s patch doesn’t appear on the Update Catalog page.) the update is optional, but will be moved to the recommended updates a few months later.
Applying the update will only remove the Adobe Flash Player installed by your version of Windows, not if you installed it manually from another source, Microsoft says. 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 remove Flash via Adobe’s website.
If you absolutely have to reinstall Flash, 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 create one before applying the Flash uninstall update.
By the end of the month, Microsoft has also removed Adobe Flash Player from the new Edge browser. “From January 2021, Adobe Flash Player will be disabled by default and all versions will be older than KB4561600 released in June 2020 will be blocked. Downloadable resources related to Adobe Flash Player hosted on Microsoft websites are no longer available, ” Microsoft said.
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Microsoft Edge Legacy and Internet Explorer 11 users should also receive their latest Adobe Flash security update in or before December 2020. Google Chrome has already dumped 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 Adobe’s website, your browser will now prevent it.
In addition, Adobe blocks Flash content will run in Flash Player from January 12, 2021 to “help secure users’ systems”, it says. Because macOS and Windows won’t do that anymore Getting Flash security updates makes sense to do so considering it is now a defunct technology.
Flash was first developed by FutureWave before being acquired by Macromedia and then by Adobe. Flash was the best way to embed beautiful animations, video players, and video games on websites in the late 90s and early 2000s. It paved the way for fully immersive, interactive websites that are the norm today. But with the proliferation of bigger and better platforms like HTML5, OpenFL, and Unity, Flash slowly started to feel outdated. Adobe has rebranded its Flash authoring environment as Adobe Animate in 2015 to expand support for HTML5 and encourage developers to build with new web standards instead of Flash.
The majority what you find on a website today is not Flash, but HTML5 or some other open standard that takes much less time to render web pages. Not only are modern authoring environments significantly less CPU intensive, but something like HTML5 doesn’t need a browser plugin to work, unlike Flash. HTML5 works natively with all browsers and is SEO friendly too.
Adobe will continue to support Animate – and in case you were wondering, Homestar Runner is still very much alive. Also the Internet Archive has already been preserved over 1,000 flash items, including classics such as Das, All your base is ours, and Peanut Butter Jelly Time. I have not seen it Salad fingers on the list, but it has a ton of episodes already on it David Finch’s YouTube channel.