Published: September 11, 2020
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Note
After December 31, 2020, Adobe Flash will be treated as a third-party plug-in and will not receive Customer Support from Microsoft.
What is the Lifecycle policy for Adobe Flash Player on Windows?
Adobe Flash Player will reach the end of support on December 31, 2020.
In July 2017, Microsoft, Adobe, and their industry technology partners, announced this decision. In keeping with this plan, Microsoft is ending support for Adobe Flash on Microsoft Edge (both Chromium-based and legacy) and Internet Explorer 11 at the end of 2020.
Until this date, Microsoft will continue to release security updates to Flash Player, as they are available. Go here for more information on Flash end of support.
What operating systems (OS) are supported by Microsoft for Adobe Flash Player?
Microsoft will support the following OS versions until December 2020:
- Windows 10, version 2004 (all editions)
- Windows 10, version 1909 (all editions)
- Windows 10, version 1903 (all editions)
- Windows 10, version 1809 (all editions)
- Windows 10, version 1803 (all editions)
- Windows 10, version 1709 (all editions)
- Windows 10, version 1703 (all editions)
- Windows 10, version 1607 (all editions)
- Windows Server, version 2004
- Windows Server, version 1909
- Windows Server, version 1903
- Windows Server 2019 (all editions)
- Windows Server 2016 (all editions)
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows 8.1
Note
Flash Player distribution and support for Windows 7 is owned by Adobe.
What are the changes expected at the end of support?
Security updates to Adobe Flash Player and customer support from Microsoft will end in December 2020. Downloadable resources related to Flash, hosted on Microsoft websites, will no longer be available.
Beginning in January 2021, Flash will be disabled by default and Flash versions older than the June 2020 release will be blocked. Flash Player components will be removed from the Windows operating system via an update in early 2021. Later in 2021, all APIs, group policies and user interfaces that govern Flash behavior will be removed from the legacy version of Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11.
In Microsoft Edge (on Chromium), Adobe Flash Player will be removed by January 2021. The schedule of changes is available here.
What if my enterprise line-of-business (LOB) applications are dependent on Flash after end of support?
It is recommended that customers move to newer, more secure technologies from Flash. For enterprises seeking migration assistance continued support after 2020, Adobe is providing some support options. Please visit this blog post for more details.
To aid our customers, Microsoft Edge on Chromium will allow Flash to load as a plug-in via the IE Mode feature. Inherently, Internet Explorer 11 will also allow this.