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Flash Player will be phased out by the end of 2020 as Microsoft officially ends support on its 3 web browsers, coinciding with Adobe halting updates and distributions. However, Flash will not vanish entirely. Enterprise customers relying on Flash applications for business purposes can still receive support, and Microsoft Edge will allow Adobe Flash Player to be downloaded as a plugin through the Internet Explorer Mode feature.
Microsoft will sunset Adobe Flash Player tool by the end of 2020
In July 2017, Microsoft, Adobe, and other tech giants including Facebook, Apple, and Google announced that Flash would no longer be supported after 2020. Currently, Microsoft Program Manager Suchithra Gopinath stated that the company is discontinuing support for Flash Player in Edge, Edge Legacy, and Internet Explorer on December 31, 2020.
- Learn more: How to Install Flash player on computer
Microsoft will continue providing security updates for Adobe Flash Player and maintaining operating system compatibility as well as browser compatibility until the end of 2020. Gopinath mentioned that the declining number of Flash users, along with the availability of better and safer alternatives such as HTML5, WebGL, and WebAssembly, led to the decision to cease support.
Flash will not completely fade away by the end of this year. Some companies still utilize software for intranet content and training applications will continue to receive support from Adobe, who has partnered with Samsung's Harman corporation to assist in this transition. It will also function as a plugin through Edge's Internet Explorer mode. Gopinath stated, 'Essentially, Internet Explorer 11 will also allow this,' but Microsoft will not provide support for anyone running Flash as a plugin.
Starting January 2021, Adobe Flash Player will be disabled by default on all Microsoft browsers, and all versions older than KB4561600, released in June 2020, will be blocked.
If you wish to completely remove Flash from your system, Microsoft will release the 'Adobe Flash Player Removal Update' through Microsoft Update Catalog, Windows Update, and WSUS.
Flash has been gradually disappearing over time. It was defaulted to block in Chrome 76 last year, Google ceased displaying Flash content in search results in October, while Safari, Facebook, and Mozilla Firefox have all ceased support.
Download Flash Player for Windows, Mac, Linux:
