Last updated: January 12, 2021
There are several reasons to uninstall Flash Player from your Windows computer. It may be that you had an unsuccessful or corrupt installation of Flash Player that is not working properly. Or you simply want to remove a known installation of Flash Player from your system that has become a security concern, or is just no longer required. First of all, check for an installed version of Flash, if any. If your system does not detect Flash Player, then there is no reason to proceed with the uninstall process.
If your system detected Flash Player, the information below will show you how to remove it from your Windows computer. The process involves downloading an uninstaller program from Adobe, closing any applications that may be in use on your computer that use Flash Player (such as web browsers, for example), and restarting your computer. Before getting started, make sure you have the correct permissions to download files to your computer, and save any unsaved work in your open applications.
Download, Install and Run Uninstaller
1. Download the official uninstaller program for Flash Player from Adobe (Source: download.macromedia.com).
2. Save the uninstaller to your computer’s desktop so you can find it easily. The uninstaller icon will display on your desktop. Mouse-over the icon to display information about the uninstaller.
3. Before running the program to uninstall Flash Player, close all of the programs on your computer that use Flash Player, as forewarned. The uninstaller will not run if you have any programs open that use Flash. Once the programs close, run the uninstaller by double-clicking the icon on your desktop. As designated by the yellow and blue shield icon on top of the Flash uninstaller icon, running this program requires administrator privileges. When the User Account Control prompt displays, input your computer’s administrator password into the Password field, and click the Yes button to continue.
4. The dialog to uninstall Flash Player will display. Click the Uninstall button to continue.
If you had any doubts about whether the uninstaller would run if you ignored the part about closing the open applications that use Flash Player, you will see this dialog:
Once you close the conflicting applications, the uninstaller will continue automatically. Follow the prompts.
5. Once the uninstaller finishes, you will need to attend to some file and folder clean-up. This involves navigating to specific folders on your computer, and manually deleting the contents of those folders. Navigate directly to the folders from your computer’s Search button by typing Run into the search box. Then, click Run from the Programs listed in the search results.
Type or copy/paste the following location into the Open: input field in the Run dialog, then click OK: C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash
The Flash folder will then open in the file path you input. Delete all of the files located in this folder. Next, delete all of the files and folders in each of the following 3 locations too, repeating the same method to locate them as described above:
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
%appdata%\Adobe\Flash Player
%appdata%\Macromedia\Flash Player
6. Finally, to complete the process, restart your computer. Once the computer restarts, open a web browser to verify that Flash Player is no longer installed.
More helpful Flash Player articles:
How to uninstall Flash Player from Mac
How can I see which Flash Player version is installed?
How to update Flash Player on your computer
Thank you for visiting Tech Help Knowledgebase to learn how to uninstall Flash Player from Windows.
Henry Irvine, Contributing Technology Writer, translates more than a decade of internet technology experience in product and customer relationship management into practical help and how-to content. Look for him on Bay Area trails, music venues, or sausage shacks when he’s not writing. Don’t call him Hank if you see him. Seriously. Hank on Twitter
