Adobe's Flash Player has gained a bad reputation as an insecure piece of software, and it's no secret that it is affected by dozens of vulnerabilities every year, with the parent company rolling out patches every month.
As a result, running an old version of Flash Player is extremely dangerous, and Microsoft is trying to make sure you have the latest version by making some changes to Internet Explorer.
Starting October 11, 2016, old versions of Flash Player will be automatically blocked in Internet Explorer on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 – this decision does not affect Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 users – as these systems are automatically updated with the latest version of the Player when it is available.
Internet Explorer is the only browser that will receive this update, and Microsoft Edge, which is currently available exclusively for Windows 10, is not affected. Flash Player is built into Edge and is automatically updated via Windows Update as part of the Patch Tuesday cycle.
Flash Player no longer has a future on the modern web, especially since it remains insecure despite the plethora of updates it receives, and with the internet moving towards HTML5, it's just a matter of time before more of these measures are implemented.
Microsoft has taken several steps to protect users from its browsers and has already blocked outdated Java and Silverlight content. So seeing Flash Player added to that list is completely normal!
