The new Windows 10 released by Microsoftremoves Adobe Flash Player, even before it reaches the end of support on December 31, 2020.
The new update KB4577586, is part of Microsoft's effort to follow through on the plan it announced with Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google and Mozilla back in 2017 to end Flash by December 2020.
The update is available for all supported versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server, as well as Windows 8.1.
Microsoft confirmed in September that it would end support for Adobe Flash Player in its Chromium- based Edge browsers , as well as Internet Explorer 11, by the end of 2020. However, the company detailed future support options for customers who need Flash for line-of-business applications.
In the past, Microsoft has partnered with Adobe to provide Flash updates to ensure end users are protected from exploits and malware that target Flash Player security flaws.
This new update removes Flash Player from Windows devices and cannot be uninstalled, Microsoft said.
Currently, the update can only be downloaded and installed from the Microsoft Update Catalog. It will be available in WSUS starting in early 2021, but administrators can manually push it to WSUS now.
The reason behind this move is so that enterprise customers can experience the impact of the removal of Flash on business applications. However, the company says it will continue to provide security updates for Flash until support ends.
Users can restore a device to an earlier system restore point to keep Flash. However, they must explicitly enable this feature and a system restore point must have been created on the device before the update was applied. The other option is to reinstall Windows without applying the update.
Source: ZDNet
