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I understand that Adobe Flash is reaching it's end of life by the end of 2020 with all browsers blocking it etc. Microsoft also says that

Microsoft will also take steps to remove Flash from the Windows operating system

But my concern is not flash content in browsers. I have to deal with standalone flash applications - mostly educational applications - bought on DVD and installed. I'm unsure on how these application work technically:

  • do they somehow use IE internally? (that would mean they would become unusable after the Windows update)
  • do they have some kind of flash player packaged into the exe and the 2021 win update wont affect them?
  • how to find out?

Basically my question is: how to find out if an application which uses a form of adobe flash will be working after the mentioned windows update?

Thanks!

Note: I don't want to go for any workarounds / disabling windows updates etc.

raravy
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1 Answers1

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First of all, I don't know how this type of stand-alone applications have implemented their use of Flash. Maybe there is some standard approach that could allow for some standard answer, maybe it varies.

If the application developer does not provide this information and/or updates (or is just not around anymore), or if it's just too important to leave it to chance, I would suggest that you set up a test machine, install the "preview" of Flash removal update that Microsoft made available for testing purposes and then test the applications that you are interested in to see how they work.

To also take into account that newer Adobe-provided Flash versions (32.0.0.371 is a version number that floats around in discussions) allegedly have a corresponding "time bomb", you may also want to set the system date into the future for your testing, to take into account that a Flash player included with the software could potentially still stop working at the EOL date.

Håkan Lindqvist
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