Have the Flash x86 and the Flash x64 installers been combined in to one?

[Guest]

Up until just recently there were always 2 different installers for each Flash install for each browser. The 32 bit version and the 64 bit version. Has Adobe now combined the two separate installers in to one? Or do I still need to find separate x64 and x32 bit installers? I seem to be able to find the installer for 11.3.300.265 but it no longer says it is for 32 bit or 64 bit.

I have been searching for some sort of a message or update put out by Adobe Flash announcing that they have combined the two installs, something that should be on the download page in big bold letters so that we know about the change and know we can stop keeping 4 separate installers and reduce it to two.

I am an IT support professional and one of my jobs is to keep up to date with the full installers for things like Flash, Adobe Reader, Shockwave etc so that we can supply our customers with the latest updates, no spam involved and no tricks to install additional UNNEEDED and UNWANTED junk ware such as the MacAfee Security Scan Plus or Google Tool Bar that they try to trick you into installing, by pre-checking it, AN EVIL THING TO DO TO UNKNOWLEDGEABLE USERS, and the main reason we have to find and download the FULL INSTALLERS sans the crap ware ourselves is that we cannot trust Adobe to provide us with Crap Ware Free installs etc. ( For Shockwave we have to manually install it ourselves, a very time consuming thing since it ALWAYS tries to trck the user in to installing EVIL CRAP WARE such as Google Tool Bar and Norton's Security junk. If these were not EVIL programs and crap ware then they would not need to pre-check their installation, but they must obviously be EVIL CRAP WARE since they have to resort to tricking usurers in to installing them via a pre-check.

Thanks,

Ralph Malph

[pwillener]

There have never been any 3rd-party software bundled with the offline installers at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html

And yes, since version 11.3 the 32-bit & 64-bit Flash Player add-ons have been combined into one installer.

[Guest]

Thank you Pat,

That was the information I was looking for. It had looked like they had been combined, but I wanted to see some sort of an official reference to that before I changed the way I send out the updates. (I used to have tests in my scripts for x64 vs x86 now I don't need them.)

As for the fact hat there has "never" been 3rd party software imbedded in the Flash Installer, that may be true, but what is also true, is that the Shockwave installer, FROM Adobe, DOES HAVE 3rd PARTY CRAPWARE IMBEEDED, and since Shockwave is an Adobe company, one has no choice but to assume that they will someday try to sneak such crap in to their other installs. Other wise they would have stopped doing it for Shockwave, along with NO PRE CHECK options for crapware on their Reader update page, and a full apology for having done such evil things in the first place and a promise to never ever ever try to bundle or have pre-checked options for the installation of any kind of 3rd party software whether one wants to call it crapware or Google Tool Bar or MacAfee Security bla bla bla. In other words the company, Adobe, DOES attempt to trick you into installing crapware with some of it products and updates so one MUST assume that they could, without notice, do the same thing to any of their other products and therefore NONE of their updates can EVER be trusted to be crapware free.

I double dare an Adobe rep to reply and tell me and the world that Adobe will no longer do such nefarious things to their unsuspecting and uneducated customers and will REMOVE the pre-check for MacAfee on the reader install page and remove the 3rd party crapware from Shockwave and post a link to a full install for it sans the crapware and publicly apologize for doing that to their customers and promise never to ever do it again. Then I can enable automatic updates for all the Adobe products. Until then I have to manually control their installations and double check every one of them for crapware.

Remember the old adage "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." I will not get fooled twice!

Pat, Thanks again for the help,

Ralph Malph

[pwillener]

There are also no bundled 3rd-party software in the offline installers for Shockwave Player at http://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer/shwv_distribution3.html

[RMRMRMRM]

Pat,

Thank you again for your reply. The link you gave is great! The fact that this is NOT the link you get when you go to the Adobe web site and click on the "Shockwave" option is NOT great and shows proof positive that Adobe CAN NEVER be trusted not to try and trick the unsuspecting user in to installing CRAPWARE with their updates etc.

To show irrefutable proof of Adobe's immoral and evil intent to fill their customers PCs with CRAPWARE  look at the following research results I got when looking at the various options I or a normal non technical user has for getting Shockwave updates etc.

I went to the Adobe web site home page and clicked on the "Shockwave" link and it took me to the following web page... http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/  This is the "Official" place that Adobe sends all the people who look for Shockwave. Clicking on the "Agree and Install Now" option will initiate the downloading of the Shockwave "Slim" installer. I did this and then after downloading the installer, ran it. It did its thing, then paused a few moments, and then it tried to trick me in to installing Chrom and making it my default browser with "PRE CHECKED" options to do so. That is DISCUSTING !!!!! I downloaded the Slim version from the link you gave and that copy did not try to install crapware. If Adobe was truly looking out for their customers best interest instead of being greedy and not giving a hoot about their customers needs or keeping their systems free of un needed Crap Ware then their web site would link you to the CRAP FREE Slim version for shockwave and not the CRAP FILED version. In fact the version filled with Crap would NOT even exist. But is does exist and is the default they offer! So therefor Adobe has proven beyond a doubt that they care more about big pay checks for its CEO no matter what the cost or who gets harmed than making sure that they do not take advantage of the unknowledgeable public by tricking them in to installing CRAP WARE. Needless to say this is a MAJOR violation of moral integrity and Adobe needs to be called out on it.

Next I did a Google search for the Shockwave installer, one of the options was another Adobe link... http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/ Clicking on anyone of the 4 Shockwave options sent you to a version that included CRAPWARE! All the other places that were listed such as FileHippo, had either the full installer or the slim installer. But regardless of which one they offered, Crap Ware was included. At no time did I find a link for the Crap Free installer  which, of course I should have gotten as the first item on the search results. It should, in fact, be impossible to find a version of Shockwave that has any kind of links to CrapWare, but it seems the opposite is true, it is impossible to find a version that DOES NOT have CrapWare imbeded in it.

Bottom line is Adobe has violated the trust of its customers and is guilty of infecting millions of people with CrapWare and CANNOT be trusted to act in a moral way!!!!!!! How EVIL of them! I wonder when they will start including CrapWare with Flash, I am sure it will be soon, I certainly can never trust that they will not someday sneak it in until they PUBLICLY apologize for doing so with Shockwave, the Reader, etc and PUBLICLY promise to never do it again.

Once again I double, triple and quadruple DARE Adobe to STOP the EVIL, apologize for it and swear on a stack of Bibles, Koran's, or whatever that they will NEVER EVER do so again. All updates will be rewritten as new version numbers with NO CRAPWARE, and distributed to all who need them and ALL links from the Adobe Sites to the installers for Shockwave will be to your link of Crap Free installers and not the Crap Filled installer as it currently is. In fact ALL Crap Filled installers are to be destroyed!!!

So lets hear from from the forum community a resounding demand  that ALL CRAPWARE be removed from ALL Adobe products and web pages, NO PRE-CHECKED links for McAfee Security Scan Plus on the Reader install page etc and a full apology from an Adobe rep in this forum and on their front page and as PUBLIC a forum as they can find, front page ad in the New York times would be a start, and a promise to NEVER EVER do it again.

Thanks for listening, and thanks again Pat for the Crap Free Link.

Ralph Malph

[pwillener]

It is a fact of life that a great number of free software from commercial companies come bundled with some or other 3rd-party software.  As long as there are no laws agains it, it is unlikely that this practice will disappear.  Believe me, not everybody within Adobe is happy with that practice, but the people who make company policy will never read your forum posts.

Now, not every 3rd-party bundled software is equally evil.  There is bundled software that can be unchecked during the download or install.  There is bundled software that does no harm to your computer.  There is bundled software that can be easily uninstalled if it was accidentally installed.  And then there is bundled software that is none of these, like the infamous Ask Toolbar; it is installed without the user's consent, it is spyware, and it cannot be uninstalled via normal means.  That is what I'd call crapware!

Anyway, for users of Adobe's free software, there is always a clean installer, as long as the users really look for it.  All these clean offline installer download links are published muliple times in these forums, and everybody who's interested can find them.

For Adobe Reader: http://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/