What is it?
Adobe Flash Player (called Shockwave Flash in Firefox and Internet Explorer) is a type of software used for streaming audio and video and for viewing multimedia (with the exception of rich internet applications). Flash Player can run from either a mobile device or a web browser as a plug-in. To view Flash animations on the internet, you must first have Adobe Flash Player installed. It is a free program that you can download from Adobe’s home website. You can update your Flash Player at any time by downloading the new version, but you must first uninstall the old version to make sure the new one will install correctly.
How to
To start, close all your open browsers, and open the one that you will be using, whether it is Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or any of the others. Download the Flash Player uninstaller from Adobe, and follow the step-by-step prompts to remove Adobe Flash Player from your hard drive completely. After it has been removed, go to the Adobe Flash Player download page and install the latest copy. When the confirmation window pops-up, select the “Save File” option, and save it somewhere on your computer where it is easy to find. Double-click the saved file and follow the prompts of the installation wizard to install the new version. To verify the installation, return to the Flash Tester page to ensure it actually worked. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can select “Install” right after clicking the “Agree and Install” button, as the player will be installed automatically in the background.
Why do it?
Making sure you have the newest version of anything, including Flash Player, is a great way to ensure you have access to all the features the software has to over. Updates also generally include better security, which is important, as popular software packages and programs are the main targets of many hackers. By updating your software, you can help prevent someone from hacking into your computer and stealing your personal details. It doesn’t cost anything to update Flash Player, so there is no real reason not to do it. You may not be able to access certain applications on some browsers if you do not have it updated, which is another reason to install the latest version.
Risks
Adobe products, including Flash Player, are prime targets for malware to hack into a system or just infect it in general. Adobe’s updates help improve security, but the release notes do not disclose the security issues that are being address in that specific release, which makes it difficult to evaluate the urgency of that particular update.
You also have to uninstall your current version of Flash to get the upgraded version, which can be time consuming and frustrating. The biggest drawback of Flash is the inability to use it on Apple products. Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple, said that their products wouldn’t support Flash because of stability and security issues. Thus, you need to have a PC or other Microsoft or Google product to access Flash.
