What is Flash Player and do I need it?

Thursday, 30 June 2011 14:19 Last Updated on Friday, 21 October 2011 10:04

Flash Player is used by websites to display videos and animations and is used by all browsers (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome etc.). You are going to need it and, what's more, you're going to have to keep it up to date (it is constantly being 'patched' to fix security flaws).

Now the good news, the REALLY good news: the Chrome browser from Google includes Flash Player so you don't need to install or update it. Chrome does it for you, automatically; in the background. Chrome is now my preferred browser and this is one of the reasons.

My advice? Remove Adobe Flash Player (uninstall via Add/Remove Programs in XP or Uninstall Programs in Vista/Windows 7). If you are using another browser and some site wants you to install Flash Player then simply visit that site in Chrome instead! Simples!