What you need to know
- A Windows update to remove Adobe Flash Player will soon be available through Windows Server update Service.
- The update is already available through Microsoft Update Catalog.
- Adobe Flash reached end of support at the end of 2020.
Adobe Flash reached its end of support on December 31, 2020. This month, Microsoft may play its hand in the end of Flash by completely removing Adobe Flash Player from Windows 10 with an update. Microsoft already released an optional update in October 2020 through Windows Update Catalog that removed Flash, but according to a Microsoft support page, the update that removes Flash will also be available on Windows Server Update Service. While this update will become more easy to receive, it will remain optional for now.
"This update is currently not available in Windows Server Update Service (WSUS). It will be made available in early 2021," reads the support page. It also notes that you can import the update manually through the Microsoft Update Catalog Site.
The support page states (emphasis added):
We are releasing this removal update in advance of end of support to help customers test and validate their environments for any impact that might occur by the removal of Adobe Flash Player. Also, if another security update for Adobe Flash Player is released, customers who take this removal update will still be offered the security update.This update only removes Adobe Flash Player that was installed by your version of Windows. If you installed Adobe Flash Player manually from another source, it will not be removed. For more information about how to remove Adobe Flash Player, see the Uninstall Flash Player | Windows topic on the Adobe website.
If you installed Adobe Flash Player from a source other than Windows, this update will not remove it from your PC.
A Microsoft blog outlining the end of Flash states that the update to remove flash will be optional in early 2021 and will be recommended a few months later.
As the web moved onto HTML5 and other technologies, Flash fell out of favor. Flash also has several security issues that make other technologies more secure to use in comparison.
Our senior editor Jez Corden shared a tribute to Adobe Flash recently, in which he discusses how it changed his life.
