How To Safely Uninstall Adobe Flash Player From Windows 10

Adobe has announced that December 31, 2020, is the end-of-life (EOL) for its Adobe Flash Player. This means that it will stop updating and supporting Adobe Flash Player after December 31, 2020. This also means that Adobe Flash Player will not be officially available for download after the end of its life.

While Adobe plans to release updates until the EOL date and ask users to uninstall the Flash Player before December 31, 2020, it is a good idea to completely remove the Flash Player from your Windows 10 computer right away.

Since Adobe has clearly mentioned that it will not release any security updates or patches after the end-of-life, you should not be running the Adobe Flash Player on your computer after 2020.

Is Adobe Flash Player required for Windows 10?

Adobe Flash is an obsolete technology now. Moreover, there are better technologies, such as HTML5, WebGL, and WebAssembly. All modern web browsers support these new standards. Additionally, there are very few websites that utilize Flash code.

So, you do not need the Flash Player installed on your Windows 10 computer.

In this guide, we will see how to completely remove Adobe Flash Player from your Windows 10 computer using the official Flash Player Uninstaller.

Method 1 of 2

Uninstall Adobe Flash Player via Control Panel in Windows 10

Step 1: Close all running web browsers. If a web browser using Flash is running (even in the background), you cannot uninstall the Flash Player.

Step 2: Type appwiz.cpl in the Start/taskbar search field and press Enter to open the Programs and Features window.

Step 3: Select Adobe Flash Player. Click the Uninstall button to begin uninstalling it.

Step 4: When you get the following screen, click the Uninstall button to remove the Flash Player. Once it is uninstalled, we suggest you reboot your computer once.

Step 5: Navigate to these folders and delete the remaining files to fully remove Adobe Flash Player files from your computer:

C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

Step 6: Finally, type the following paths in the Run command box (use Windows + R to launch it) and press the Enter key. Delete all files from these folders as well:

%appdata%\Adobe\Flash Player

%appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player

If you get the “Location is unavailable” error when trying to open one of the locations mentioned above, it is likely because the Flash Player uninstaller has removed that folder. You do not need to do anything. That is it!

Method 2 of 2

Uninstall Adobe Flash Player using Flash Player Uninstaller

Although you can uninstall the Flash Player via the Control Panel or Settings app, it is a good idea to use the official Flash Player Uninstaller to safely and completely uninstall the Flash Player.

Step 1: Get the Flash Player Uninstaller from this official link.

Step 2: Close all web browsers. Run the Flash Player Uninstaller. Click the Yes button when you get the User Account Control prompt.

Step 3: Next up, you will get the following screen where you need to click the Uninstall button to begin removing Adobe Flash from your computer.

The flash player will ask you to close web browsers if they are running.

Step 4: Once the uninstallation is done, reboot your computer.

Step 5: Follow the directions in Steps 5 & 6 of Method 1 (scroll up to see) to manually delete the remaining files and folders of Flash from these locations:

C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

%appdata%\Adobe\Flash Player

%appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player