Is Flash Player Update tied to default browser? - Flash not auto updating when Chrome is default

[scottb39874330]

Hello

I manage machines for an organization where most users do not have admin rights.  I have set up Flash player to install updates automatically.  According to this (dated) article

How does the automatic update feature work in Flash Player?

"Normal Flash Player installations require an administrator account. However, automatic updates are performed even if the user is logged in with a standard account."

So I think my clients should be updating to version 18 automatically.  However when I check I see that they have not updated.  After looking at this some more I realize that when I use the control panel to check for updates it launches Chrome which is our default browser.  Well of course Chrome is up to date because Google takes care of that.  However if I launch IE and paste the check version URL into IE I see that flash is not up to date.  So then I try to run update from IE and when it completes it launches a page in Chrome again.  So it looks to me like Flash player is using whatever browser is configured as the default browser to check with Adobe for updates.  However this will never work if a user has Chrome as their default browser and also has flash player installed separately for IE.

Do you understand my point?  How can I get Flash player to automatically update when a new version is available even if my default browser is set to Chrome?

Thanks,

Scott

[piyush2508]

Hi Scott,

The Update mechanism of Flash Player does not depend on the Default browser type, the update at the backend - periodically connects with out servers to make sure that the Flash Player installed on your system is latest or not. If you have an older version of Flash Player installed a latest version of Flash Player is downloaded and silently installed to the latest version.

Once in a while even after setting a silent update (Allow Adobe to Install Updates) you will see a notification which is primarily to intimate all our users that a major version of Flash Player with some major change has been released, which takes you to get3.adobe.com and you download and install Flash Player using the online downloader which on completion opens up an update completion page on your default browser.

I personally recommend you to set the update setting to 'Allow Adobe to Update Flash Player' which will seamlessly keep flash on your system updated.

For more information please refer - Flash Player installation and update questions and answers

Please let me know in case more information is required.

--

Piyush

[piyush2508]

A Detailed information about the update setting is given at - Introducing Adobe Flash Player Background Updater for Windows | Adobe Developer Connection

[scottb39874330]

Hello Piyush

I have reviewed both of the articles you referenced.  In my experience auto update is not working as it is supposed to.  I have over 100 clients that are all set to update automatically and they are all still at version 17.x of Flash player.  Why would these clients not update to version 18 when set to 'Allow Adobe to Update Flash Player'?  When I use the control panel for Flash player and click the Check Now button on the Updates tab it always launches Chrome and the page says that Flash is up to date.  However the ActiveX version displayed on the Flash Player Settings Manager says version 17.0.0.190.

I have attached a screenshot to illustrate this issue.  The picture is a bit cluttered but you can clearly see that Flash Player is set to Allow Adobe to install updates.  The ActivX version is 17.0.0.190 (not up to date).  Also you can see the version check page open in Chrome, indicating that Chrome has the current version 18.0.0.194 and you can see the version check page open in IE indicating the the version for IE is 17.0.0.190 (not up to date).

So what is going on?  How can Flash Player update be working correctly if it is not updating the ActiveX version of Flash Player?

Thanks,

Scott

[richardc70876012]

I have been asking the same question and have made a post about this over here.... Automatic update to Flash 18 via mms.cfg?

I have even tried downloading the flash 18 msi and deploying it via GPO but it will not install over 17.0.0.190 

[richardc70876012]

After doing some more digging I found this line on our clients that have 17.0.0.190 installed

FlashInstall.log   2015-6-30+1-26-0.96 [error] 1221 1115

[scottb39874330]

The most recent entry I'm seeing in my flashinstall.log files begins

2015-6-24+4-37-13.912 [error] 1226 1062

In fact every version since the original install has [error] next to its entry.  Not sure how to interpret that.

2014-1-31+0-37-0.189 [error] 1221 1115

2014-2-21+5-37-6.615 [error] 1226 1062

2014-3-12+0-37-5.867 [error] 1226 1062

2014-4-28+17-37-14.191 [error] 1226 1062

2014-5-14+6-37-13.612 [error] 1226 1062

2014-7-9+7-37-8.216 [error] 1226 1062

and so on...

I can't seem to find any definitive information about what these codes mean.

[scottb39874330]

Based on this thread Errors 1226, 1062 I very much doubt we'll get any kind of answer on this. 

What can be done to get auto update to work correctly?

[piyush2508]

Hi scottb39874330‌,

Yes, the information you have provided is correct. 17.0.0.190 is the recent build which was pushed along with 18.0.0.194 as a silent update for all the users who are still on ver17.0, both these builds have the same security fix and thus both of them are secure and no harm to your system.

Now what is a Loud-Release --> For a major release or major feature release we notify all our users that we have a major change in our builds, so all systems will get a notification that a major release is available for download and install. During this period everyone is supposed to goto the Flash Player Install/Update page to get the latest flash player installed which has to be done manually using our Download Manager.

Scenarios:

1. If you were a 17.0 user and updated to 18.0 via our online downloader you would have got 18.0.0.160, and then will silently updated to 18.0.0.194

2. If you are on 17.0 you will move to 17.0.0.190, were 17.0.0.190 is the build shipped with 18.0.0.194 which does not have a latest features but has all the security fixes. Every 17.0 user will keep getting the notification to upgrade to 18.0 for which he'll have to download via our online download manager.

Because you have many systems you have to manage I recommend moving yourself to a more controlled and administrative environment where you can manage updates by creating a server for pushing the silent update bits (Adobe Flash Player Distribution | Adobe‌ bits) and all the machines with Flash Player installed will then refer to your system for any update.

Please refer the following links:

Flash Player enterprise deployment | Adobe Developer Connection‌

Adobe Flash Player Distribution | Adobe‌

Adobe Flash Player Administration Guide for Flash Player | Adobe Developer Connection

--

Piyush

[scottb39874330 · Accepted solution]

Hi Piyush

Thank you for this information.  So basically the feature to 'Allow Adobe to Update Flash Player' does not work reliably across version changes.  I find this incredibly misleading.  Rather than get involved in a cumbersome process to annually license the ability to distribute flash and then create group policies to deploy it, then test the results of having these policies in place when flash tries to update itself, pay attention to current versions of flash so we can deploy new .msi files and update our policies... 

I think I will just remove flash from all of our systems.  It's clear that having flash installed poses a continual security risk and it's unfortunate that we can't rely on Adobe to help keep their own software updated in an easy and efficient manner.  It's amazing to me that Google can do a better job of keeping flash updated in their browser than adobe can.

Thanks,

Scott