Microsoft to Fully Remove Adobe Flash From Windows 10 to Keep Customers Secure

Microsoft has announced that it will remove Adobe Flash Player from Windows 10, and some older operating systems through the KB4577586 “Update for Removal of Adobe Flash Player” in July 2021. The Redmond-based giant had released the first update in this regard in October last year that removed Adobe Flash Player from the system through the Microsoft Catalog site. This advanced update was released to help customers test validate their environments. Additionally, the company highlights that when users update to Windows 10, version 21H1 or later, Flash will be removed.

As per an update to a previous blog post, Microsoft will remove the Flash component from Windows through the KB4577586 “Update for Removal of Adobe Flash Player”. In June, the update will be included in the Preview Update for Windows 10, version 1809 and above platforms. “It will also be included in every subsequent Latest Cumulative Update,” Microsoft said. In July 2021, the KB4577586 update will be included in the Latest Cumulative Update for Windows 10, versions 1607, version 1507 as well as in the Monthly Rollup and the Security Only Update for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Embedded 8 Standard.

The October update mentioned above cannot be uninstalled once applied. It is likely that the update for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Embedded 8 Standard will also follow the suit.

Adobe announced the retirement of Flash Player back in 2017. In January, Mozilla became the last browser company to announce the removal of support, with Firefox version 85.0 the last release to support Adobe Flash. Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer dropped their support once the KB4577586 update was released. The arrival of open standards, and failure to come to grips with some severe security flaws were reasons for its departure.