They want to tackle the three browser variants which include Flash Player within Edge, Edge Legacy and also Internet Explorer. Whilst this appears to be a great plan on the outside, it seems that things might not be as clear cut as they should be with this change.
In fact, Microsoft has said that they will be allowing their corporate customers to keep the outdated tech for a period of time (this has not been set out as of yet) and still be able to use it on a regular basis.
WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS?
The news that the days of Flash are numbered is not new. In fact, it was first announced back in 2017 that this was going to happen. At this time, it was hoped that it would disable the default nature of Flash within its browsers by the middle (or even late) of 2019. This would then be moved to being unable to run Adobe lash in Edge or Internet Explorer by the end of 2020.
The reason for this is because the Flash technology is no longer used as much as it once was. In fact, it has been replaced by newer, more secure options such as HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly.
WHAT IS LIKELY TO HAPPEN?
It has been said that this move won’t actually kill off all of the Flash Apps that companies may use. In the most part, of course, many have moved on from the rather old and out-dated Flash approach. However, there are still some that will use Flash or their intranet content, their training apps and for anything else that they have forgotten to have rewritten.
With this in mind, whilst it has been removed from these browsers, it will still linger on in the background. It will be there in the form of a plug-in, which will be available via the Internet Explorer mode feature. That said, if you do decide to use Flash for your business, then you shouldn’t expect any help from Microsoft as they won’t be offering support to those companies.
There will also not be any security updates for Flash after the end of 2020.
It might be sad to see Flash drifting off into the virtual sunset; however, it seems that the time has come to bid it farewell. It has served many of us well over the years, but the time has come to wave goodbye to Flash and let it now become a distant digital memory. Like so many things before it.