HARMAN are now supporting the Adobe Flash Player, and have a number of solutions to allow companies to continue using Flash-based applications or to deploy the Flash Player along with their own solutions. The main options are:

• Flash Player as a plug-in for Internet Explorer technologies. This is an ActiveX version of the Flash Player that is then registered on Windows to allow IE - and other applications that use ActiveX/COM, including C++/C# apps - to load the Flash Player. This can be used to enable content within the standard IE browser, as well as for use within Microsoft Edge (via their IE Mode) and Google Chrome (via Legacy Browser Support).
• A "packaged browser" solution. These are separate desktop applications that are configured to act as a portal through to the web-based application, they are not fully featured browsers but use existing browser engines to provide HTML/JS capabilities. There are two options here: (a) one based on the MSHTML browser engine (similar to IE), and (b) one using Electron.js and the Chromium browser engine. The latter has to be fixed in terms of the Chromium version being used, as Chromium 88 removes support for plug-ins.
• Flash Player binaries: for example the NPAPI or PPAPI binaries can be provided for use with your own application, whether that is also using Electron/Chromium, or via Adobe AIR which has a built-in WebKit engine, or for third party integrations.

In all cases, HARMAN's Flash Player builds need to be customized for each deployment so that they are enabled for known/trusted content, and will block unknown content (this is an extension of the "Enterprise Enablement" feature within the Flash Player). Some other limitations include (a) no software codecs for H.264/AAC - these are replaced by OS calls in the ActiveX builds of the player, but are not supported in PPAPI builds i.e. for use with Chromium-based solutions; (b) no support for Adobe Access DRM or Encrypted RTMP streaming; (c) no distribution is permitted in mainland China, where Adobe have a separate distributor (see flash.cn).

For more information on the solutions, please see our Adobe Packaged Browser Solution.

Adobe's final Flash Player version - outside of China - was version 32.0.0.465 (although Microsoft did not deploy this, instead the latest version found in IE will be 32.0.0.445). Within China, the Flash Player continues to be available from flash.cn and the version used here is now version 34.

HARMAN's deployments of the Flash Player are now using version 50.x in order to avoid confusion with these other versions. Therefore if you have a Flash Player with a version number of 50.x, under a license agreement from HARMAN, you will be able to receive updates and support on the platforms and applications as described in your license.

HARMAN continue to maintain and support the Flash Player and will provide security updates as/when needed. Any security vulnerability raised to HARMAN - or to Adobe - will be reviewed and where necessary, an update created to address this which will be provided to all customers with a current license. The timescales will be in line with industry standard disclosure requirements to ensure that a fix is issued prior to information about the vulnerability being made public. If there is a zero-day exploit discovered in the Flash Player, HARMAN's goal is to provide a fixed version to all customers within seven days of disclosure.

Further information can be found at HARMAN - Packaged Browser Architecture and Security.

The below section aims to support customers resolve the common issues that may be encountered when trying to use one of HARMAN's Flash Player solutions. In general, it is always worth checking what version of the Flash Player is installed (via the Flash Player Help trouble-shooting page), and that it's correctly installed for IE-based solutions (see "Manage add-ons" information below).

• Flash/Information 'blocked' logo is seen. This may be due to the use of Adobe's Flash Player still, or HARMAN's Flash Player, where they are blocking the requested SWF file. If you right-click on the logo you would see the context menu; Adobe's Flash Player is identified by the "About Flash Player 32.." at the bottom. If you click on the logo, if it's Adobe's Flash Player then their "End of Life" website should be loaded; if it's HARMAN's Flash Player then this page should be loaded. This logo can also be seen if you have an evaluation version from HARMAN that has expired.
• No Flash content at all is seen including blank rectangles or "you need to install Flash" type messages. This can be due to a number of reasons, for example if there is no Flash Player centrally registered on the system, or if the system has been configured to prevent the loading of the Flash Player. To check this, in IE, open the settings menu and select "Manage add-ons"; there is a selection to choose to display "All add-ons"; then in this list, there should be an entry for "Shockwave Flash Object". If this is set to disabled, it needs to be set to enabled (this setting takes effect on HARMAN's build as much as Adobe's build of the Flash Player). If there is no entry for "Shockwave Flash Object" then the Flash Player may have been uninstalled from the computer. If you have an IE/ActiveX-based "packaged browser" solution from HARMAN, you may need to re-enable the registry entries that Internet Explorer uses to advertise the presence and version number of the Flash Player. To this end, HARMAN have created a small utility that can be installed that will replace the registry entries - essentially by creating a non-functional 'dummy' ActiveX control that uses the same CLSID as the Flash Player. The link to download the Flash Player Utility is at the bottom of this page.
• Flash Player 32 is still being used even after installing a HARMAN solution. This is common when the uninstallation of the Adobe/Microsoft-deployed version hasn't correctly completed, or if the HARMAN installation failed. If this happens, the recommended approach is to (a) uninstall any of the HARMAN software that had been installed, (b) uninstall the existing ActiveX Flash Player using the appropriate mechanism (Windows 7 uses Adobe's uninstaller, Windows 8 and later uses Microsoft's update); (c) re-install the software from HARMAN.
• Problems with video content. As per the above, HARMAN's build of the Flash Player does not include the software codec support for H.264 (AVC) video or AAC audio, that is available from Adobe's builds of the Flash Player. As such, some multimedia content may not work when using the PPAPI versions of the player (in Chromium-based solutions).
• Printing issues. Currently there are restrictions within the Electron/Chromium based packaged browser that mean printing triggered from ActionScript is not properly supported. This is under review but is currently outside of HARMAN's scope to fix.

Adobe Flash Player Enterprise End of Life

Adobe Flash Player 32 Admin Guide

Adobe Flash Player Uninstaller for Windows (excludes the Flash Player for IE in Windows 8 or later)

Microsoft Edge - Update on Adobe Flash Player End of Support

Microsoft Update for the removal of Adobe Flash Player

Flash Player Help trouble-shooting page

Flash Player Utility - created by HARMAN to set up the registry entries so that the Internet Explorer browser engine (including when used in a "packaged browser" solution) can determine the version of Flash Player present and respond to JavaScript queries for this information. Checksum (SHA256): d1be9a4588543194176b60ae7271fca70c961f6dfdf4d92ab63b7dac06f5a50a