DO I NEED AIR 3.2?

Report · Apr 27, 2012

I am updating (adding to) the below posting -- it's been 4 days since posting it and I'm puzzled why no one has responded to it.

It appears that Chris and/or others have responded to other posts since my posting. Was what I was asking below unclear?

I am confused by the reference indicating that AIR is part of the OS and, as such, downloading Air 3.2 is unnecessary. Again -- my basic hypothesis is that since I have an earlier version of AIR installed, and no OS upates have changed that version to AIR 3.2, is the statement that AIR is part of the OS inaccurate? If so, is it logical that I should download and install AIR 3.2 to have the latest version on my system?

Finally, are all these other posts about problems installing AIR something I should seriously be concerned with or are they just a minority experience, with most AIR installations successful? (I would think that Chris, as an Adobe employee, would have credible comment on that.)

Looking for some support, please! Thanks!

I have Windows 7 Home Premium (with Service Pack 1) on a Dell XPS 8300. Air 2.6.0.191.20 was preinstalled on my machine by Dell on 8/17.2011.

So about half a year later I discover Air 3.2 is available for downloading and installation. I've received no automatic prompts regarding installing it. But nonetheless, upon a cursory overview of online information I've decided that Air is worth having, and, yeah -- why not go with the latest version?

But -- on an Adobe web page (http://www.adobe.com/products/air/tech-specs.html) it says, "Note: Adobe AIR is part of the operating system and part of the operating system update, and thus a separate download is not required."

Huh? (Then why haven't numerous Windows 7 updates since delivery of my pc shown an upwards revision of the version of Air in my system?)

Then -- adding to my confusion and general sense of caution -- I see nuerous posts regarding difficulties with installing Air.

Adobe's "Chris" seems like a good guy -- wanna help me out, please?! Bottom line -- should I download and install Air 3.2? Or, if pros and cons get too dicey, am I at least able to if I want the latest version?

Report · May 01, 2012

I am using "reply" to my own post with the assumption that that will update it and indicate a change to it by placing at the top of the postings. I thought the "edit" function would do that but it apparently didn't. Please refer to the below updated post.

Report · May 01, 2012

The updated post is not "below" but at the TOP! (I'll get the hang of the controls soon, I hope. :-))

Report · May 02, 2012

Hi,

Sorry I hadn't gotten to your post yet. I'm behind and still going through posts from a week and a half ago

AIR isn't required for your operating system unless you use an application that depends on it. Think of AIR like you would Java. It's a platform/runtime for other applications to be built on. If you don't use any application that was built with AIR (or Java) then there is no need for it to be installed.

If you do have an AIR application installed that requires AIR, I would definitely recommend updating to the latest version just to make sure you have all of the security updates that we've provided. You can do this by visiting get.adobe.com/air and downloading the latest version, which is 3.2. Updating your OS will not update the AIR runtime. You can also get updates by actually launching your AIR based applications. AIR will notice that it's out of date and prompt you to install and update to the latest version.

Since you haven't received any AIR update notifications, this leads me to believe you aren't actually using any AIR applications.

You can always start the AIR uninstall process, if AIR applications are installed you'll get a dialog letting you know which applicaiton's will be affected. You can choose to continue to uninstall or cancel at that point.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Chris

Report · May 02, 2012

Thank you so much, Chris. Between your heavy involvement in answering other folks here and your response to my own post I can tell you're an asset to Adobe. Computing would be much more fun and easy if other businesses in the industry were able to address issues as well as you and Adobe apparently can.

Your answer really helped me -- consider my post "answered". As you may have surmised, I am in the process of reviewing all applications on my new pc to see if they are up to the latest revision level OR are not needed and can be uninstalled. I had forgotten about that last option when I originally posted -- looked like I needed to have AIR.

But your tip about the uninstallation routine showed me that my AIR was needed for my Zinio Reader application to work. Which was WAY down in the list of installed applications -- hadn't gotten around nor would have gotten around to looking at that for a while. But I was now prompted to consider it. I checked it out and discovered that I had no need nor desire for it whatsoever. So -- bam. I uninstalled it as WELL as AIR after that.

But Adobe stays in my life. Besides the most up to date versions of Reader and Flash my investigating around showed I did not have Shockwave installed -- so I will be downloading that latest version and installing it.

Thanks again!

Report · May 02, 2012