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Windows Operating Systems Security

Two More Windows 10 Updates Will Remove Adobe Flash For Good (zdnet.com) 47

Posted by BeauHD from the nail-in-the-coffin dept.
Microsoft is preparing to issue two more Windows 10 updates in June and July that will eliminate unsupported Adobe Flash Player from Windows PCs for good. ZDNet reports: The update KB4577586 called "Update for Removal of Adobe Flash Player" has been available as an optional update since October and now looks set for a broader deployment. Flash Player officially reached end of life on December 31, 2020 as per an announcement by Adobe and major browser makers in 2017.

"Starting in June 2021, the KB4577586 "Update for Removal of Adobe Flash Player" 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. "As of July 2021, the KB4577586 "Update for Removal of Adobe Flash Player" will be included in the Latest Cumulative Update for Windows 10, versions 1607 and Windows 10, version 1507. The KB will also be included in the Monthly Rollup and the Security Only Update for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Embedded 8 Standard," it added.
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Two More Windows 10 Updates Will Remove Adobe Flash For Good More

Two More Windows 10 Updates Will Remove Adobe Flash For Good

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  • About bloody time (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Major_Disorder ( 5019363 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @04:31PM (#61348000)
    Kill flash! Kill it with fire!!!

    • Kill flash! Kill it with fire!!!

      Kill Adobe! Kill it by not buying their products!! ... or with fire!!! I'm fine with either approach.

      • With the exception of Final Cut, everything Adobe has is duplicated by Open Source. Then again, who edits TV without it?

        • everything Adobe has is duplicated by Open Source

          If you think this then you were very much a consumer playing around with professional software for fun. No, Adobe does have some decent competitors, but for much of their suite they get precisely zero relevant competition from Open Source.

          In fact the best attempt is probably Inkscape, but even that pales in comparison to the features offered in Illustrator, and that's the best case scenario. You won't find for example GIMP used in any professional setting ever, for very good reason (CMYK colour support? Wha

        • Lightroom? Nope. Photoshop? Nope. (Gimp is not a replacement). InDesign? Nope. XD? Nope. AEM? Nope, but a lot of companies are have been trying to play catch-up for a long tome with proprietary extensions to Wordpress or Drupal. Test and Target? Nope. Campaign? Nope. Dynamic Media? Nope. Commerce Cloud? Sorta⦠but Adobe bought the leading open-source platform. Campaign? Nope. Adobe Analytics? Nope. DTM? Nope. Aero? Nope. DMP? Nope.

          Adobe is a much bigger company than you realize with a lot more so

          • Lightroom? Nope. Photoshop? Nope. (Gimp is not a replacement). InDesign? Nope. XD? Nope. AEM? Nope, but a lot of companies are have been trying to play catch-up for a long tome with proprietary extensions to Wordpress or Drupal. Test and Target? Nope. Campaign? Nope. Dynamic Media? Nope. Commerce Cloud? Sorta⦠but Adobe bought the leading open-source platform. Campaign? Nope. Adobe Analytics? Nope. DTM? Nope. Aero? Nope. DMP? Nope.

            Adobe is a much bigger company than you realize with a lot more software out there as critical workflow and platform tools across many different industries where there simply is no open-source equivalent and commercial alternatives are equally as expensive.

            Uhuh, that's very nice and all but that entire rant just goes to my point which is that Adobe is an utter piece of shit company that gets to rob it's customers blind because it's the only game in town. This was bad enough back in the day: https://www.neowin.net/news/it... [neowin.net] their new subscription based business model is an even bigger ripoff.

            • Your point makes no sense. Who said they are robbing their customers blind? There's real value being provided with real products that people are willing to pay for. If there was a market to do it cheaper wouldn't alternatives exist? They frequently don't exist because it is very hard and very expensive to replicate what those products already do well. There aren't open-source products because they are too complex to survive as a hobbyist initiative.

              • Your point makes no sense. Who said they are robbing their customers blind? There's real value being provided with real products that people are willing to pay for. If there was a market to do it cheaper wouldn't alternatives exist? They frequently don't exist because it is very hard and very expensive to replicate what those products already do well. There aren't open-source products because they are too complex to survive as a hobbyist initiative.

                Firstly, You didn't read the article I linked to did you? Secondly, Photoshop alternatives exist. Some of them are good enough and sufficiently cheaper too license that it's worth using them and they are improving all the time. Thirdly, when did I say there were open source alternatives that can beat Photoshop? My point only fails to makes sense if you are an Adobe shill who thinks paying USD 52.99/month rent for Adobe's 'Photoshop Value Pack' is the best possible deal on the market. Even the USD 20/month c

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
                  The original post was:

                  "With the exception of Final Cut, everything Adobe has is duplicated by Open Source. Then again, who edits TV without it?"

                  . If you want to argue about the price of CS, comparing it to other proprietary software (Affinity Photo), that is a different topic.

                • My list wasn't replying to you. Your comments are tangental and arguments about value from competing commercial products is irrelevant.

                  I was replying to "The New Guy 2.0" who claimed

                  everything Adobe has is duplicated by Open Source.

                  which is patently false.

            • Creative Cloud starts at $10/mo. Photoshop used to be $600/yr. How is that a rip-off? I used to think the subscription pricing was a scam, but getting access to any Creative Cloud tool, when I need it, and having to pay for only one month, has actually been a huge savings over keeping all the tools up to date with perpetual licenses.

              • Creative Cloud starts at $10/mo. Photoshop used to be $600/yr. How is that a rip-off? I used to think the subscription pricing was a scam, but getting access to any Creative Cloud tool, when I need it, and having to pay for only one month, has actually been a huge savings over keeping all the tools up to date with perpetual licenses.

                You didn't bother read that link did you? It used to be cheaper to fly to the US, buy Photoshop, and fly back home than it was to buy Photoshop outright overseas because of the Photoshop's pricing model. One Photoshop license lasted me five years or more. In my region I'm paying USD 49 per month just for the most basic Photoshop and 'Creative lCoud' package. Over five years that's USD 2940, up from USD 600. I'd call that a ripoff.

                • 5 years of $600 annual upgrades is $3000. Compare apples to apples.

                  Overseas pricing and import tariffs cause severe global pricing distortions on every product, this is not news.

                  I listed my use case where it has turned out to be monumentally cheaper, much to my surprise.

                  If you only need Photoshop, it's $10/mo, not $49.

                  You are bouncing between claiming that Adobe is raping you on pricing, while at the same time claiming that alternative software is cheaper and meets all your needs. You can't have it both way

        • And Final Cut was Apple, not Adobe.

      • And stop calling genericised stuff like PDF's "Adobe" anything! The number of panicked emails and calls I've had from the friends&family I support because "Adobe" has been discontinued and now they can no longer view documents (PDFs) and can I get them a copy of Adobe from somewhere and their world is going to end etc.
    • I cannot rest until IE 11 is dead as well....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      While its Looong past time for Flash to go away - I don't think Microsoft should be pushing updates that remove 3rd party software or anything else from peoples systems. At least not without making said updates strictly opt-in with a high level of user awareness.

      Maybe I'd relax that position a bit for cases where software meets some strict and unambiguous standard for being malware. Flash however despite its unsupported condition and vulnerabilities is not itself strictly speaking malicious.

      If I still ran w

    • People's emotional hatred of Flash makes it easy to dismiss the real problem, here.

      Apparently I'm totally alone is saying this, but I'm very disappointed in the geek community for applauding the forced death of Flash. I'm sick of other people telling me what I can and cannot do with my machine.

  • Just why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Vadim Makarov ( 529622 ) <makarov@vad1.com> on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @04:50PM (#61348034) Homepage

    I have disabled KB4577586. Why shove the removal further down my throat? It should be my choice what software to keep installed on my computer.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by javofex917 ( 8047282 )
      If you run Windows 10, then it isn't "your computer". It is Microsofts.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by hey00 ( 5046921 )

      Microsoft doesn't believe it is your computer, and as long as you have windows on it, they have more control over it than you do.

      As much as I think Flash should be dead, there is a big gap between stopping support and going to insane lengths to add a kill switch in it, make the major browsers refuse to load it, and then further prevent the program to even be installed on the OS.

      The behavior of the industry on this matter should be a big wake up call to everyone who think bug techs companies don't have too m

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rhipf ( 525263 )

        Microsoft doesn't believe it is your computer, and as long as you have windows on it, they have more control over it than you do.

        Microsoft doesn't have anywhere near the control I have over my computer. Until Microsoft comes up with some way to physically enter my home and plug in the network cable or sign into the WiFi there control is highly limited. This is of course assuming you are running Windows. If you aren't running Windows then Microsoft has even less control over a computer.

    • Because if you are not mature enough to be self managing your updates then you are definitely not mature enough to be running such an unsafe piece of software that inevitably effects everyone through the malware you will inevitably get.

    • Re:Just why? (Score:5, Informative)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @05:53PM (#61348224)

      I have disabled KB4577586. Why shove the removal further down my throat? It should be my choice what software to keep installed on my computer.

      It's not software, it's a Windows component. This update does not remove Adobe Flash if you installed it yourself, it only removes the version which came with windows / IE.

      • Technically, it's a feature that came with the machine. If companies have to update things, that's fine, but removing things should require them to ask permission, first.

        But, hey, easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, and all that.

        • The same statement can be applied to any bug in any software.

          But your last statement while right has a typo. Not "easier" to ask for forgiveness, but outright "better" to ask for forgiveness. We have proven over the past 20 years that users when asked anything don't think straight and most definitely don't act in any kind of self interest. That can be seen by the number of people who blindly block security updates leading to things such the ILOVEYOU worm terrorising the internet for close to a decade after

          • We have proven over the past 20 years that users when asked anything don't think straight and most definitely don't act in any kind of self interest.

            Most of the time, that's because developers are asking the wrong questions. Hell, with everything being done with telemetry these days, developers don't even bother communicating with their user base anymore.

            It's popular to think that customers are stupid and don't really know what they want, but that rhetoric is only parroted by managers and people who don't understand design. People do know what they want, they just don't know how to express it since they are not technical experts or don't have time or

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      You need a Windows 7 machine that's backdated at least a decade to still run Flash - if you can find a standalone installer that isn't compromised.

    • Why isn't Microsoft patching things fast enough!

  • Funny, the software license and software that came along with Flash is now intrinsic in Windows, Mac, and Linux so there's no more point in distributing Flash...

  • KB4577586 is being distributed by all the things that it should be included in.... but how'd we get the count to "Two"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      The two are "Preview Update for Windows 10, version 1809" and "the Latest Cumulative Update for Windows 10, versions 1607 and Windows 10, version 1507".

  • I'd rather see... (Score:3, Funny)

    by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @06:24PM (#61348336)

    ...Linux security updates uninstalling Windows.

    • If that process would preserve my apps and data (either by including the Linux equivalent, or including wine to run Windows only apps), I would actually like this feature! I have a few Windows laptops I want to convert but haven't largely because I'm lazy and wiping one os and installing the next will take a while; automate that and I'm in!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by JustNiz ( 692889 )

        The only thing that will take time is copying off/restoring anything you want to keep. Ubuntu installs pretty darn quick/easy.

  • There are still users who need Flash (Score:3)

    by PastTense ( 150947 ) on Tuesday May 04, 2021 @06:46PM (#61348410)

    Remember this post:

    Adobe Flash Shutdown Halts Chinese Railroad for Over 16 Hours Before Pirated Copy Restores Ops

    https://www.thedrive.com/news/... [thedrive.com]

    So there are still users who rely on Flash--so it shouldn't have a mandated removal by Microsoft.

  • When will they update ‘Windows 10’ so as it doesn't take two whole seconds for text to appear on screen and the mouse doesn't intermittently pause on scrolling.

  • You need a little digging to find this out, but the update only applies to the Adobe Flash Player when installed by Windows. If you got it from another source (and it doesn't have it's kill-switch working) it won't be affected.

    Also, it won't affect third-party flash players, just in case you have a non-Adobe player.

  • Great! Now they just need to force-remove all the legacy crap left over from Windows 9x, which pose an even greater security risk but which seem to be kept live, because, meh, "backwards compatibility".

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