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Old August 12th 18, 12:16 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
No_Name
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Default adobe flash player and win 7

On Sat, 11 Aug 2018 14:49:55 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:

jackpatton wrote:

there are a few instances where i will go to play a video form the web
and will get the message "run adobe flash" on a gray screen where the
video should be.

I do have adobe flash as an "ask to activate" plugin to firefox.

for windows 7 can it be removed completely or will there still be
some sites that insist on it?


"Ask to activate" means the site can still query the visiting client
regarding whether or not it supports Flash, and the client will respond
with "Yes" (and it's your choice of whether or not to click on the
placeholder the client places where the video stream is presented in the
page). That means it can be used to fingerprint you regarding the
availability of Flash support in your client. You must set to "Never
activate" to completely disable Flash in the client which will then not
respond to the request, so the site figures the client has no Flash
support. "Ask to activate" means sites can still see your client has
Flash support but has refused to allow it until you choose.

Whether you uninstall or leave installed the Flash plug-in, "Never
activate" will make it appear to any site asking about Flash that it is
not available to your client. With "Never activate", the site won't
know if you configured the client to hide that it could use Flash or if
Flash is not installed. Doesn't matter to the site as "Never activate"
with the plug-in installed and the plug-in not installed result in the
same response from the client. The only reason to use "Never activate"
is to let you change your mind with having to reinstall the plug-in.
However, if you intend to always use "Never activate" then you might as
well as uninstall the plug-in. Use the Add/Remove Programs applet in
Windows to uninstall the Adobe plug-in.

There will continue to be sites that require Flash support by the
visiting client for many years. Adobe is dropping Flash in 2020 but
many sites still have a lot of Flash content. However, when Adobe drops
Flash, so will the web browsers, so the sites with Flash content will
have no one visiting that can play their Flash content unless they are
using an old[er] version of the web browser. Well, it's typical that
old versions take a while to fade away after new versions are released.
Some users are forced to use old versions either because they want to
continue using the old XUL/COM extensions (instead of the new
WebExtensions) or the web browser dropped support for their old Windows
versions which means the user can only use an old version of the web
browser on the old version of Windows.

Flash is dead and been replaced with HTML5 video. Flash is a fish
that is ashore, beyond the flopping around while thrashing to survive,
and at the point it is unmoving except for trying to gulp water through
its mouth to pass over its gills. Adobe is dropping Flash. All the web
browsers will drop Flash, too. Flash will survive only through use of
old versions of web browser but miniscule trickle is not enough for the
survival of sites with Flash content.

Some sites have both Flash and HTML5 copies of a video stream. They
will test the client if it has Flash support: if so then they present
the Flash stream and if not then they present the HTML5 stream. The
FLash auto-choice will fade away when Adobe drops Flash support. Just
remember that "Ask to activate" means the site will see your client
supports Flash (and may try to prompt you to allow Flash). If you
rarely use Flash and you almost always want sites to not even see your
client has Flash support but you still want an occasional escape to
enable Flash, set to "Never activate". If you never intent to allow
Flash then uninstall it.


Good reasons!

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