The succession of vulnerabilities found in Adobe’s Flash Player shows no signs of dying down: not a month goes by without Adobe releasing another yet emergency update for Flash to patch a bunch of newly discovered vulnerabilities (measuring in the dozens).
Uninstall_flash_player.exe -uninstall That works 100% of the time for me. The uninstaller Adobe offers is really nice, unlike java where you have to run a complicated wmic cmd to remove it. How to Remove Flash Player from Mac. Begin by checking if you have Adobe Flash Player installed on your Mac. Open your browser and follow the link. There may be alternative options to check for Flash Player plug-in, however considering Flash’s ill fame, it is best to avoid fake third-party websites with unclear origin. If you installed Adobe Flash Player, but still cannot view online videos on certain websites, you need to check Adobe Flash Player on your browsers. How to set up Adobe Flash Player on various browsers. Launch Safari and go to the Apple menu bar and click Preferences.
Some of them can be pretty nasty as they introduce new attack vectors for spyware, ransomware, trojans and other malicious applications that you don’t want anywhere near your computer.
A few years ago, Flash Player was impossible to avoid because a bulk of web video was encoded in Adobe’s proprietary Flash format, but not anymore: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and many other popular web services now use HTML5-based video players that work in any modern browser.
While Apple does block older, vulnerable versions of Flash in the Safari browser on macOS, you should do yourself a favor and remove Flash Player from your Mac using step-by-step instructions provided in this tutorial.
How to remove Adobe Flash from your Mac
1) Navigate to the /Applications/Utilities/ folder on your Mac and launch the Adobe Flash Player Install Manager app.
Tip: If you don’t see the app and are positive that Flash Player is in fact installed on your Mac, download the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller from Adobe’s website.
2) Click the Uninstall button to begin the process.
3) Type the administrator password for your OS X user account and click OK to continue.
Flash Player is now being uninstalled from this Mac. You cannot cancel the uninstaller at this point. Don’t restart or turn off your computer until the uninstaller finishes.
4) After the uninstaller removes Adobe Flash software from your computer, click Done.
And that’s all there’s to it, folks!
Uninstall Flash Player Windows 10
Living in a Flash-free world!
Congratulations, your Mac is now Flash-free and your computer is no longer prone to Flash vulnerabilities—even if you try to access Flash content in a browser—as long as you don’t reinstall Flash Player.
Don’t you shed a tear—you’ll be better off without Flash altogether!
Verifying that Flash Player uninstallation is complete
After running the uninstaller, your system should be free of Flash Player and its associated web plug-in. To verify that Flash uninstallation has been completed successfully, first restart your Mac by choosing Restart in the Apple menu.
Then, open your browser and check the status of Flash Player on Adobe’s website. If Flash Player is no longer installed on this Mac, the page will produce an error message.
Accessing Flash content without Flash Player
As we mentioned, you can watch virtually any video on the web without needing Flash Player.
In moving away from Flash-encoded video, web developers have embraced HTML5 video en masse. For starters, HTML5-based video works in any modern web browser without needing a dedicated plug-in.
In addition, HTML5 video takes advantage of your computer’s chips to decode content in hardware. Not only does that allow for smooth video playback than in Flash Player, but also does so in a power-efficient manner that helps conserve energy.
With that in mind, if you stumble upon a piece of Flash content on the web that you want to view but hate the idea of re-installing Flash Player, simply use Google Chrome for these purposes. Google’s browser has built-in Flash Player, but it’s sandboxed to prevent Flash vulnerabilities from affecting the rest of your system.
macOS blocks outdated Flash versions
Out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player that do not include the latest security updates are automatically disabled in Safari by macOS to help keep your Mac secure and help limit exposure to potential zero day exploits from web plug-in enabled content.
If you see the message “Blocked plug-in,” “Flash Security Alert” or “Flash out-of-date” when attempting to view Flash content in Safari, that’s Apple warning you that you’re using an out-of-date version of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in on your computer.
More Mac tips? Browse our tutorials archive.
Need help? Ask iDB!
Not sure how to do something on your Apple device? Let us know at help@iDownloadBlog.com and we might solve your specific problem and provide a solution in one of our future tutorials.
Submit your how-to suggestions at tips@iDownloadBlog.com.
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Hello and welcome to my User Tip
With Safari 5.1.7+ will disable older versions of Flash as a security precaution, all you need to do it update it or install it.
What is Flash?
Flash is a web browser plugin or extension that websites code their video and features in so it plays accross all web browsers and platforms. It doesn't work on iOS devices.
The user installs and maintains Flash on their computer, thus any website they visit that uses Flash then they can see the content or video as intended.
There are many web browser plugins, but the one used the most is Flash and thus many questions about installing it here, thus this User Tip
This User Tip is not intended to debate the politics of Flash or promote it's use. I'm well aware of the late Steve Jobs 'war on Flash', many people who ask to install it so this User Tip is here to assist those who really need it so us volunteers can assist others with more important issues.
Install Flash Player
To install Flash, you click the orange link on this page. Bookmark this link and always use it to install Flash as there are those trying to trick you to install malware.
If you don't see the icon, it's downloaded to your downloads folder next to your trash can, double click that folder and doubleclick the Flash installer package.
10.8 users may have to head to System Preferences > Security > General and set the Downloads to 'Anywhere' to accept software from the web that isn't signed by Apple. It can be turned back on when your done. A short cut is to right click or control key click on the installer or program and select 'Open' to bypass Gatekeepers controls, once done it should always allow it to run. Always be careful your positive your installing the right software from a reliable source.
Keep Flash and other web browser plugins updated!!
Free checker, works for all browsers.
Security Tip:
I advise you don't keep items pernamently in the Downloads folder, it should remain empty except when doing a recent download.
Malicious websites can initate a download simply by visting them, unknownst to you and leave a trojan wating in your downloads folder for you to click on and infect your machine.
You will likley need to enter your admin name and/or password to install, this is normal.
Troubleshooting
If it's not installing, uninstall Flash here first, then try to reinstall it again.
You might also have to manually uninstall any cache files Flash makes in the User account, look in the System Preferences > Flash for the cache delete button
Privacy issues and further troubleshooting
The Flash cache or 'Flash cookies' should be cleared often as websites can read that information, it also might be corrupted.
Some browsers like Firefox have add-ons like Ghostery, Click&Clean etc., that perform this task automatically when the browser is quit.
If your still having trouble installing Flash
like your clicking the installer button and nothing happens...
#12 OnyX cache clearing routine has worked well for others in the past when Flash wouldn't install or isn't working properly for some reason, likely because of a corrupt cache file in OS X or perhaps a permissions issue.
Once OnyX has done it's thing, reboot and uninstall and reinstall Flash again to get it to work.
If your still having problems, perhaps it's something else and you need to run through the other Step by Step fixes or consult on the forums.
Security precautions
Like any software downloaded from the Internet, you need to trust the source.
I advise you not to manually install Flash by any other method besides via the link outlined above, so bookmark that link.
There is malware in the form of fake pop-up windows that looks like a real Flash update request and tries to trick you to click, enter your admin password or so forth to install a bogus Flash or other malware.
Here is a example of a Windows trojan here that mimicks the auto-update feature of Flash when it detects you are trying to view a video with a outdated version, then asks to update, it's actually from the website itself trying to install malware.
If any website or popup says you need to install/update Flash etc., it's probally wise to quit the browser completely and install Flash through known and trusted methods.
See this for example
BTW, I use Firefox for it's ability to display a window BEFORE a download starts to make sure I'm not being tricked.
Adobe Flash For Mac Lion
Adobe Flash
For more about security issues with Mac's, read this