Adobe® Flash® Player is the world’s most pervasive software platform, used by over 2 million professionals and reaching over 98% of Internet-enabled desktops in mature markets as well as a wide range of other devices.It provides a fantastic, rich, interactive graphic user experience. For most users installation or removal of Adobe Flash Player is never necessary. Although occasionally for web development professionals it may become necessary to uninstall or remove Adobe Flash player for testing, debugging, or troubleshooting purposes.
In the past uninstalling Adobe Flash Player worked similar to removing other software programs. However Adobe has made some significant changes to the way Flash Player installs on both Windows and Macintosh computers. This change applies to all browsers including Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox. If you wish to remove or uninstall Adobe Flash Player you will now need to download and run the appropriate uninstaller available from Adobe.
Below we have included basic instructions to uninstall or disable Adobe Flash Player in Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers.
Uninstall or Remove Adobe Flash Player
The installer can be found at the following links:
1. Windows
2. Mac OS X
3. Mac OS 8.x, 9.x
We have included the instructions available on the Adobe website which describe the proper method for removing Adobe Flash Player; (Note: These instructions are available on the Adobe website at the link: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=2)
- Download the Adobe Flash Player uninstaller:
- Save the file to your system, choosing a location where you can find it (for example, your desktop). Macintosh users may need to open or unstuff the .hqx file.
- Quit ALL running applications, including all Internet Explorer or other browser windows, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, or other Messengers. Check the Windows system tray carefully to make certain no applications which might possibly use Flash Player are still in memory.
- Run the uninstaller. This will remove Adobe Flash Player from all browsers on the system.
Note: The uninstaller cannot remove files currently in use.
If you have any instances of the player open in your web browsers, instant messaging clients, stand-alone SWFs, or projectors, then the uninstaller will complete but some files may not be deleted. If this occurs, then close all of your applications and run the uninstaller again to ensure that all files are removed.
Note: Internet Explorer users may have to reboot to clear all uninstalled Flash Player ActiveX control files. If you’re not certain, select the “Show Details” button in the Flash Player uninstaller. If there are any log lines that begin with “Delete on Reboot…” then you’ll need to reboot BEFORE running the Flash Player installer again.
Disable Adobe Flash Player
Firefox
A quick and easy way to disable Flash in the Firefox web browser is to use the popular Firefox add-on called Flashblock which can be downloaded from the Mozilla website at the following URL: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433
Internet Explorer
Adobe Flash Player can be disabled in Internet Explorer by unregistering Adobe Flash Player as and Active X component. Once disabled Adobe Flash Player will no longer function. Internet Explorer 7 users can user IE7Pro and add-on for Internet Explorer 7 which will allow users to block or disable Flash. This add-on can be downloaded at the following URL: http://www.ie7pro.com/
