Deep Thought wrote:

Internet Explorer has Flash built in. The OS does not.

Check again. Any fresh install of Windows 10 Home/Pro.

For example, this is what I found when I have my laptop (Win10 Pro x64) upgraded to 1511 (10586). I have removed these stuff in the previous build, and then they're back again in this major version upgrade.

1%windir%\System32\Macromed\*
2%windir%\System32\CatRoot\[...]\Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-Package*.cat
3%windir%\SySWOW64\Macromed\*
4%windir%\SySWOW64\FlashPlayerApp.exe
5%windir%\SySWOW64\Flash*.cpl <-- see it in control panel | System & Security
6
7%windir%\WinSxS\amd64_adobe-flash-for-windows_
8%windir%\WinSxS\wow64_adobe-flash-for-windows_
9%windir%\WinSxS\FileMaps\$$_system32_macromed_flash_
10%windir%\WinSxS\FileMaps\$$_syswow64_macromed_flash_
11%windir%\WinSxS\Manifests\amd64_adobe-flash-for-windows_
12%windir%\WinSxS\Manifests\wow64_adobe-flash-for-windows_
13
14%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download\...\amd64_adobe-flash-for-windows_
15%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download\...\wow64_adobe-flash-for-windows_
16
17HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\ComponentDetect\amd64_adobe-flash-for-windows_31bf3856ad364e35_0.0.0.0_none_ab9875376a174135
18HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\ComponentDetect\wow64_adobe-flash-for-windows_31bf3856ad364e35_0.0.0.0_none_b5ed1f899e780330
19HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\PackageDetect\Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~0.0.0.0
20
21"Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.10586.0" in
22HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\PackageDetect\Microsoft-Windows-Foundation-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~0.0.0.0
23HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\PackageDetect\Microsoft-Windows-Server-Gui-Shell-Package-shell~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~0.0.0.0
24
25HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\PackageIndex\Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~0.0.0.0
26HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\Packages\Adobe-Flash-For-Windows-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.10586.0
27
28HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\amd64_adobe-flash-for-windows_31bf3856ad364e35_none_b4179b8118d18c9f
29HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\wow64_adobe-flash-for-windows_31bf3856ad364e35_none_be6c45d34d324e9a
30HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\wow64_adobe-flash-for-windows-deployment_31bf3856ad364e35_none_47a439c9d9f1351c

There are some other reg entries, but the above should be the key ones to remove. Also check their default ownership/permissions. 😉

Note that running Flash "uninstaller" from Adobe does not remove the above. I'm not sure what it does or if it really does anything useful.

Microsoft has long history of bundling outdated version of flash into fresh Windows install.
in Win98SE installer disc, in the WIN98_51.CAB there exist: swflash.ocx
on Win XP installer disc (and on SP3 too), in i386 directory, there exist: flash.oc_ which will be expanded into flash.ocx

archsan wrote:

Deep Thought wrote:

Internet Explorer has Flash built in. The OS does not.

Check again. Any fresh install of Windows 10 Home/Pro.

For example, this is what I found when I have my laptop (Win10 Pro x64) upgraded to 1511 (10586). I have removed these stuff in the previous build, and then they're back again in this major version upgrade.

The only version included is for Internet Explorer.
The plug-ins for other browsers are not included - you have to install them manually as you would in any other version of the OS.
This is not new to Windows 10 either - Windows 8 was the same.

Joey_sw wrote:

Microsoft has long history of bundling outdated version of flash into fresh Windows install.

The latest version is installed and kept up-to-date via Windows Update automatically - unlike the standard version of Flash which has to update itself and requires browser restarts to do so: meaning that people don't bother to update it and are vulnerable to attack.

Of all the things to complain about with Windows 10, this seems asinine.
If you don't use Internet Explorer or Edge, you can ignore it.
If you do use Internet Explorer or Edge, you can disable it.

Deep Thought wrote:

The only version included is for Internet Explorer.
The plug-ins for other browsers are not included - you have to install them manually as you would in any other version of the OS.
This is not new to Windows 10 either - Windows 8 was the same.

Indeed. And even if IE is the only reason it's there (but then there's still Edge), it _is_ still bundled (= built-in, integrated, packaged... semantics) with the OS.

I'm not that up-to-date with Apple but last time I heard Flash is NOT bundled with Mac.
Even google's doing it, almost six years later. And if there's a Linux distro with flash bundled, I would SMH (I mean, really?). 😀

Just because it's "part of the internet", doesn't mean I have to accept it as part of my system. Just like Java. Or something more similar: realplayer, quicktime.

Asinine or else, I've made the _choice_ to get rid of it entirely, and am merely informing other users that it's something trivial (easy-peasy, but can be made much easier if MSFT and ADBE would make proper uninstaller, or provide the user the _choice_ not to have it in the first place) should they too want to exercise same choice.

In the words of an earlier poster, I got my butts off to DO something about it. 😉 YMMV.

archsan wrote:

In the words of an earlier poster, I got my butts off to DO something about it. 😉 YMMV.

That's damned right! This whole forum is full of computer nerds who enjoy the crap out of twiddling with MS-DOS to get stuff working, IRQ settings, DMA numbers, microcode updating, blah blah. Yet they can't uninstall a Flash app or block some telemetry IPs? This confuses me.

^To be fair, I was the one who first complained about Flash in this thread (which is supposed to be about complaining about another thing). But hey at least I also came up with a solution! 😀

Behold the BSON (blue screen of nag).

Wow. That's...pretty intrusive. At least they put a do not remind me again link at the bottom.