Flash haters, rejoice! Microsoft releases tool to let you nuke Adobe's security horror before support ends
- Reference: 1603862197
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/28/windows_flash_removal_update/
- Source link:
Adobe announced the death of Flash in July 2017 after [1]admitting that the software had been overtaken by open standards. Left unsaid was that those open standards were not sources of endless bugs and security risks, unlike Flash, which for years was leakier than the Trump White House and only marginally less dangerous.
End of support for the rightly reviled software happens on 31 December 2020. Major browser makers have all announced that their wares will stop running the Flash plugin the same day.
Existing Flash installs in an OS will, however, continue to work. And there's every chance that bad actors have a zero day or two up their sleeves to use once support ends.
Enter Microsoft with a new [2]support article advertising the existence of a Flash-removal update for Windows.
Microsoft's not mucking around. The article warns: "After this update has been applied, this update cannot be uninstalled."
"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," Microsoft said, adding: "If another security update for Adobe Flash Player is released, customers who take this removal update will still be offered the security update."
Flash will, however, survive a rollback to a Windows restore point. And, of course, if you happen to make some Windows VMs with Flash installed and working before the death-day deadline, you'll have some insurance in case you really need it in the future (or just can't bear to lose your favourite Flash games and have a stash of .SWF files ready to roll).
The update is available [3]here in versions that work on Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows Server releases from 2012, 2016, and 2019. ®
Get our [4]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2017/07/25/flash_nahuh_internets_screen_door_gone_for_good_by_2020/
[2] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4577586/update-for-removal-of-adobe-flash-player
[3] http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/search.aspx?q=4577586
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: SWF for Single White Female?
I've been actively avoiding the thing since it was called ShockWave Flash. It's not all Adobe's fault, but they must shoulder the burden of perpetuating the abomination.
Developers have had far more than 3 years to escape the flash ecosystem. Personally the last flash creation I made was around 20 years ago. Back then it was pretty much the only way to include video on a webpage.
MS late to the party
Adobe gave me the option to remove Flash - on my Windows 7 box, conspicuously ignored by Microsoft - last month
Flash, You'll be Missed
NOT!!! Nice of Adobe to blame standards compliant software for the failure of code so bad only outlaws and malware riddled porn sites could love.
Now for an app that will remove WINDOWS...
App
FORMAT C: /Y
"was that those open standards were not sources of endless bugs and security risks"
No? How many bugs we've see in media libraries, browsers, javascript engines, web frameworks and their plug-ins?
Flash! Bang! Wallop!
(Courtesy of England's first teen idol and rock'n'roll star, Tommy Steele, Instagram-ready in 1956.)
All lined up in a wedding group
'Ere we are for a photograph
We're all dressed up in a morning suit
All trying hard not to laugh
Since the early caveman in his fur
Took a trip to Gretna Green
There's always been a photographer
To record the 'appy scene
'Old it, [1]flash, bang, wallop , what a picture
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HptmXm956oI
The curse of flash
OK, who's the joker?
I clicked on the link to read the advisory. Then I hit the back button ... again and again and again. Turned out I had 10 backlinks before I reached El Reg.
The MS article was harder to get rid off than Flash!
On Windows 7, you didn't have to have Flash installed. Windows 8 was, I think, the same.
On Windows 10, on the other hand, it came bundled with the system and wouldn't let you remove it*. A strange decision and I really have no idea why they did that. Better late than never, I suppose, but it's Microsoft's habit - never fix a bug until users have been screaming about it for eighteen months.
* Various workarounds existed, but they usually either broke Windows Update in some way or another, or made it nag you forever, which is more or less the same thing in my book.
All grab those Flash games while you can. Someone has released a MASSIVE torrent of them all in an attempt to preserve their history.
Back in 2008 we used to play a kerbab van game at work when bored. You had to server people quickly at lunch. Was actually quite good for a short play.
"After this update has been applied, this update cannot be uninstalled."
The rock solid, 100% reliability of all previous updates released by Microsoft surely prove that this is a great idea.
Alternatively they could finally get the message into their concrete skulls that you ALWAYS need a way of rolling back in case of unforseen problems. But I don't think that good technical practices can ever overcome the culture of corporate arrogance within that company.
SWF for Single White Female?
It almost sounds like a ploy on a dating site. In all seriousness though, it stands to reason that something will break. It always does. The question is can one live without the program that broke? Developers have had 3 years to update their code to a different environment. The plus side is no more flash based security bugs and cookies to track you everywhere you go. On the down side, people's flash based porn collection will go into the bit bucket. And with that, I'll grab my coat and exit, stage right.