Windows 10 Update Kills Off Adobe Flash Player - Kind Of

There's a Windows 10 update coming down the pipeline today that's interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is that the update is completely optional, and the second is that the update attempts to kill off Adobe Flash but doesn't really go far enough. In fact, there's a good chance that you'll still have Adobe Flash installed on your machine even after applying the update.

As Bleeping Computer reports, Windows 10 update KB4777586 is the one we're looking at today, and it seems to have one purpose: removing Flash Player from all versions Windows 10 and Windows Server. Since this is an optional update, you won't be able to get it through Windows Update (at least not yet at any rate), as it's only available through Microsoft's Update Catalog.

The curious thing about this update is that it only seems to remove the Flash Player that's bundled with Windows 10 installs. The update can't be removed after it's been applied, and once Flash Player has been removed, the update blocks you from installing it again. That isn't a bad thing, given that Adobe itself is officially killing off Flash by the end of this year.

Since it only removes the Flash Player that came bundled with Windows 10, it seems that any Flash Player browser add-ons will still function after the update has been applied. Not only that, but standalone versions of Flash Player installed by users themselves will still function after the update as well.

So, while it's true that this update does kill off Windows Flash Player, it only does that in a very loose sense. Microsoft, for what it's worth, has its own timeline when it comes to removing Flash from its products, and it looks like the process will be wrapped up entirely – with few exceptions – by the middle of next year.