Although they were very similar technologies, each had its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, in the case of Flash, we were dealing with a multiplatform technology (supported by all operating systems and all browsers) and, despite being a proprietary technology, it managed to be as close to a standard as we have seen. On the other hand, Silverlight offered a much more powerful language, based on WPF and .Net FX 3.0, it had more complete development tools, such as Visual Studio and Expression Suite, and it offered hardware acceleration thanks to DirectX.
However, both technologies also had their drawbacks. For example, the Flash language (ActionScript) is very messy and complex, as well as having serious performance issues, while Silverlight only worked on Windows, and in very specific browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox.
In the end, the technology that managed to survive and endure over time was that of Adobe. It wasn’t the best, nor was it the definitive one (fortunately), but, although that was one of the worst things that has happened to the Internet, if the websites are as we know them today it is, in part, thanks to him. . The successor to Flash is HTML 5, a protocol that allows you to do exactly the same as with Flash technology but occupying much less space, so web pages load much faster. In addition, it does not have any security holes that can be exploited, so, in addition to being lighter, it is completely safe (at least for now).
The dangers of using Flash
At this time, and for a long time, we can affirm that Flash is a project that is abandoned. As with Windows XP or Windows 7, the popular web plugin is no longer supported at all. This means that any security flaw that is discovered will be left open forever, and hackers will try to use it to infect as many users as possible. But with everything and with it, there are still many users who continue to use it daily.
It is vital from now on to avoid this add-on in the Internet browser that we use by default. The only thing we are going to have are security and performance problems when browsing the web. Just by the mere fact of having it installed we are opening the door to possible computer attacks. If we have our browser updated, it will have already removed the plugin itself (or will do so soon). And if we have Windows up to date, since the end of 2020, the system has been in charge of uninstalling this plugin from the operating system. Also, if we have installed it by hand, we can easily uninstall it using its assistant.
Now, what if, for whatever reason, we need to use this plugin? The truth is that things are complicated. And the more time passes, the more difficult it will be. But it is still possible. We explain how.
Download Flash Player from unofficial sources
Adobe has removed the plugin from its website. This means that, from now on, there will be no official and safe way to download the plugin. Luckily, there are still different ways to download it that, although they are not official, allow us to download the add-on with some security.
One of the download websites that we recommend is Majorgeeks. This website offers us a large amount of software for direct download, without advertising, installers or unwanted software.
In we will be able to find Adobe Flash Player 32.0.0.465the last update of this plugin released on December 8, 2020. This website offers us (for legal reasons) the official Adobe installer, which has adware, so we must be careful when installing it.
UPDATE: Majorgeeks no longer offers Adobe Flash Player download on their website. As they explain on their website, Majorgeeks no longer offers the direct download of no adobe product due to a threat of legal action by the company, they will not allow anyone to host their files.
As an alternative, it is possible to download Adobe Flash Player in its version 32.0.0.465 is . From here we go we can download the file flashplayer32pp_en_install.exe and run it on our computer. It is a website from which we can download all kinds of content for our PC directly and safely, so if we need to download the Flash file it is a good place to do so.
Another website where we also have the possibility of downloading the different versions of Adobe Flash Player is . This website is a kind of digital library of applications, websites, and others that, at some point in their lives, have been publicly available and where we can find different versions of Adobe Flash Player, as well as download ISO images from most versions of Windows that Microsoft has released.
Although it may be tempting to search for the plugin on other websites, we strongly recommend against doing so. If it is already dangerous to install this software after its end of support, imagine what could happen if where we downloaded it from has hidden malware or unwanted software in the installer.
And it is that we must bear in mind that, if over the years this is a standard that has been accumulating more and more vulnerabilities, after its disappearance all this has increased significantly. Not to mention committing the imprudence of committing the imprudence of downloading an executable to install this element on our computer using unofficial or somewhat suspicious sources. In short, it is something that we should avoid at all costs, no matter how curious we are about the Flash applications of the past.
Beware of websites to download Flash
After the disappearance of official support for Flash technology by Adobe, we can find a large number of websites, and advertisements, that offer us the possibility of downloading this complement. And, as a general rule, we must mistrust 100% of the time. If until now there were ads and banners that offered us the possibility of downloading the add-on, from now on the number has skyrocketed. And the same happens with download websites, who take the opportunity to sneak into us a “downloader” that downloads, together with an obsolete Flash, a large amount of unwanted and advertising software.
If you are looking for Flash, please use the above method, which is 100% safe. And remember, always be wary. To say that if the original Flash component is dangerous in itself for our PC, if we download a modified or malicious version from a non-original source, the danger is maximum.
Come on, what at first we could carry out to remember old times in our leisure moments, could become a serious inconvenience that endangers the operating system, the installed applications and our private data. Yes, we are generally careful and take certain precautions when choosing the web pages from which we download programs that are still supported, what to say about the download of this component. The risks that we can take here will be excessive, so again we repeat that it is not worth it in most cases.
Use a browser that still works with Flash
Major web browsers no longer support Flash. For example, Chrome 88 and Edge 88being based on Chromium, stopped including the plugin from that version, while the Mozilla browser did so from Firefox 85. Since then it is not possible to run any Flash content on them, nor to install the plugin by hand.
However, we can continue to access this type of content if we no longer need to do so, for whatever reason, as long as we take into account the risks that this entails. One of the recommended ones is to use the ESR branch of Firefox. Extended Support releases receive no changes other than security fixes during their lifecycle. Therefore, since Firefox 78 supported this plugin, the entire ESR development cycle will continue to support it. The Firefox ESR will be supported until September 2021, so we can use it without problems to open this web content. Thereafter, this version of the browser will be unsupported and we will have to jump to ESR 91, which will not support this plugin.
Can we still use an unsupported version of Firefox to be able to open Flash content? Of course, just like if we got off a Chrome portable lower than version 88 we can also use this plugin. But we will be endangering our PC, not only with Flash, but also with any possible vulnerability that may be in the browser engine. That is already the responsibility of each one. As with many other standards that have disappeared over time, their continued use is the responsibility of each user. To be able to use it in some way, it is possible, however, that is not at all recommended.
This is something similar to what happens if we work with discontinued software products such as Windows XP or Windows 7. We can surely work on these systems in a multitude of tasks. However, we must bear in mind that with all this we are running a series of sometimes unnecessary risks.
In addition to Firefox ESR, there are also other alternative web browsers that will continue to support this plugin just as they do. NPAPI plugins and the classic extensions. This may be a workaround after the end of support for the ESR 78 branch of Firefox, as they will bring the latest version of the Flash Player plugin together with the latest version of the browser engine. Thus, the only security breach can be found in the plugin, but not in the rest of the browser.
However, what we must keep in mind is that compatibility with this component in current browsers is almost non-existent, or completely absent in some. Something that will spread to all of them over time.
If we do not want to go looking for old versions of Chrome or Firefox, versions that include a large number of vulnerabilities because they are very old versions, the best thing we can do is use one of the different extensions that we can find both on the Web Chrome Store as in the Firefox extension store. In both stores we will find a large number of extensions that will allow us to load flash content from any web page we visit, as long as we find one, since when Adobe announced the abandonment of this technology, most web pages They moved to HTML 5.
Alternatives to open Flash in Windows
All the time we insist on the same thing: we must get as far away from Flash as possible. If we have spent a decade insisting on the importance of leaving this plugin aside, as a result of this end of support it is necessary to move even further away from it.
It is true that there is very valuable Flash content, at least sentimentally speaking. We are talking, above all, about animations, comics and games that were previously loaded from the browser thanks to the Adobe plugin. And if…