The final Adobe Flash Player update has been released

[harlan4096]

Adobe has released the final Flash Player update on December 8, 2020 after it announced that it would stop supporting Flash about three years ago. Support ends on December 31, 2020 officially and Flash support will be removed in many products, including web browsers that ship with Flash components or support Flash integration shortly thereafter. Adobe Flash has been replaced by other technologies such as HTML5, WebGL or WebAssembly that have matured over the years.

Adobe won't release updates for Flash after Flash Player reaches end of life and the company plans to block Flash content from running in Flash Player from January 12, 2021 onward. Flash Player downloads will no longer be provided by Adobe after support end either.

Administrators need to uninstall Flash Player if the product is installed on a system; this is not necessary if Flash is used as part of a Chromium-based browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. The browsers will be updated and Flash will be removed as part of a regular update in that case.

You can open this Adobe support site to test if Flash Player is enabled in a web browser. Just select "check now" to run a quick test.
Mozilla plans to remove support for Adobe Flash as well so that an installed version of Flash is no longer picked up by the browser and integrated.

Tip: here are instructions on disabling Adobe Flash in Edge and Internet Explorer.

The release notes for Flash Player 32 contain a goodbye message and confirm Adobe's timeline:
 

Today marks the final scheduled release of Flash Player for all regions outside of Mainland China. We want to take a moment to thank all of our customers and developers who have used and created amazing Flash Player content over the last two decades. We are proud that Flash had a crucial role in evolving web content across animation, interactivity, audio, and video. We are excited to help lead the next era of digital experiences.

Adobe will no longer support Flash Player after December 31 2020, and Adobe will block Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12 2021; Adobe strongly recommends all users immediately uninstall Flash Player to help protect their systems.

Preservation projects such as the Flash Games preservation project or Internet Archive's Flash emulation archive will continue to work after January 12, 2021. A Flash Player emulator such as ruffle, used by the Internet Archive, may be used to emulate Flash content.

Closing Words

Most Internet users may not notice a difference between now and January 13, 2021 considering that Flash is not as widely used anymore as it once was. Some sites will stop functioning partly or completely once Flash is no longer available though and some content will be lost forever despite the best effort of the preservation and archiving projects.

Now You: are you affected by the EOL of Flash Player?
...

Continue Reading