Adobe Flash: It’s finally over, so uninstall Flash Player now

Flash really is dead: From January 12, Adobe has blocked all content from running on Flash Player.

You can’t play Flash content any more.
fizkes, Getty Images/iStockphoto

Flash Player is dead. No, really. Today, Adobe is blocking all content from running in the once-popular media player, which marks the final stop in Adobe Flash’s 27-year-old journey.

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It’s been a slow end for Flash Player. Big tech firms including Microsoft and Google announced that they would kill off support for the plugin back in 2017, citing the arrival of the likes of HTML 5, WebAssembly and Web GL, and the newer, richer content experiences they could provide.

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Security has also been an issue for Flash Player over the years, which proved vulnerable to cyberattacks and led to tech companies urging developers to use other tools for creating web-based content.

Microsoft officially ended support for Adobe Flash on 31 December 2020, which was the software’s official end-of-life date (EOL). But today, Adobe has hammered the final nail into the coffin as per its previously announced phase-out plan. As of January 12, Flash content will no longer run in Flash Player in a web browser or otherwise.

Adobe “strongly recommends all users immediately uninstall Flash Player to help protect their systems,” though some Windows users will have already parted ways with the software after Microsoft released an update in October last year that removed Adobe Flash Player. This update will be rolling out to the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) at some point in early 2021.

The latest Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browser updates also come without Flash support, as will the next version of the Mozilla Firefox browser, Firefox 85, which is due on 26 January.

Adobe has urged users not to try and download software claiming to be Flash Player from third-party websites, pointing out that these are likely to be malware.