Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater

Martin Brinkmann
Nov 8, 2010
Updated • Aug 31, 2018
Software, Windows software
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Keeping Adobe's Flash Player up to date is an essential online security tasks. Users need to make sure that the Flash plugin is up to date to protect their computer system from exploits targeting Flash Player vulnerabilities.

Update: Things have changed significantly in the meantime. Google and Microsoft integrated Flash natively into company browsers, and Adobe announced that it will retire Flash in 2020. It is still essential to update Flash if it is installed as a browser plugin in browsers that don't include it natively.

The program is no longer available, however. Users can use the built-in settings app to configure update checks manually, or visit the Flash Player download site regularly to download new versions that way. End

Flash Player informs the user about updates automatically, and one could say that this should be enough to update the browser plugin regularly. The default interval for update checks however is set to seven days which means that users may be notified about a Flash Player update up to seven days after it has been released.

In addition, users can opt out of update notifications which essentially means that they will not receive information about Flash Player updates anymore.

Both settings can be configured in the Flash Player control panel which Adobe integrated in Windows, Mac and Linux systems natively.

  • Windows users need to open the Control Panel and select Flash Player from the list of applets. You may need to select the Small Icons view mode to display the entry or use search.
  • Mac users go to System Preferences to select Flash Player under Other.
  • Linux users who use the Gnome desktop environment go to System > Preferences > Adobe Flash Player.
  • Linux users who use KDE go to System Settings > Adobe Flash Player.

Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater

Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater is a third party tool that detects the installed Flash version on the system, checks for Flash Player version updates online and offers to install updates if available automatically.

alternative flash player auto updater

The program displays the installed Flash Player versions for Microsoft Internet Explorer, and the web browsers Firefox, Safari and Opera, as well as the latest known version on startup. It informs you automatically if a new Flash Player version is available. It will do that by default even if Flash Player is not installed on the system. If the user accepts the prompt by clicking on "yes", the new version is downloaded and installed on the system. Selecting "no" cancels the process.

new flash player version

The software needs to be run with administrative privileges for that. The program settings offer options to ignore Flash Player for Internet Explorer or the other browsers, which is helpful if a user does not want to install Flash Player in one of the browsers. It is furthermore possible to enable a silent install of Flash Player updates, keep the latest installers on the local system and add the program to Windows startup.

Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater is a comfortable program to quickly check for Flash Player updates. It needs to be started regularly however which some users may not like.

The latest version of the software is compatible with most 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows, including Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Summary
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Software Name
Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater
Operating System
Windows
Software Category
Security
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Comments

  1. Luca said on November 25, 2010 at 12:48 pm
    Reply

    The only big issue is that is not possible to make it work with a proxy, it needs a direct internet connection.

    Cheers!

  2. Q said on November 9, 2010 at 4:29 am
    Reply

    Acording to the Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater author’s website, Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater requires ” NET Framework 3.5″. This is a great limitation that should have been mentioned in the article on this page.

  3. HNicolai said on November 9, 2010 at 1:17 am
    Reply

    Secunia PSI <3

  4. Michael said on November 9, 2010 at 12:51 am
    Reply

    This doesn’t fully fix the problem of updating Flash. Other applications also contain Flash, such as the Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe AIR and more.

  5. JC R said on November 8, 2010 at 3:31 pm
    Reply

    Beautiful, wonderful….and flawless

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