Microsoft is finally ready to purge Flash from Windows 10 once and for all. The Windows 10 “Update for Removal of Adobe Flash Player,” which permanently removes Flash as a component of the operating system, will become mandatory starting in July. Updating to Windows 10 version 21H1, expected to start rolling out this month, will also remove the software.
The update that removes Adobe Flash will also be available for older operating systems like Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Embedded 8 Standard. Microsoft announced the timeline in an update to a blog post.
None of Microsoft’s fixes will pull manual Flash installations, although that might not be an issue when Adobe stopped supporting the plugin at the end of 2020 and currently urges users to remove the add-on. Microsoft is relatively late to the party, we’d add. Google was steering Chrome users away from Flash in 2016, and rival browser makers like Apple and Mozilla took similar steps around the same time.
This is the effective end of Flash for many users. While the plugin has been losing relevance due to both its security issues and the rise of HTML5, it’s been lingering on many people’s PCs due to the Windows 10 bundle. Now, people will have no choice but to use modern web technology — although the update is coming late enough that there’s a chance the public won’t even notice.
