The latest Windows 10 updates broke down Flash Player

Feb 15, 2016 09:40 GMT  ·  By

The latest Windows 10 updates released by Microsoft this month seem to be causing issues with Flash Player on the new operating system, as a number of users claim that Adobe’s software solution has stopped working in both Internet Explorer and Edge browser with a standard account.

Posts on Microsoft’s Community forums reveal that Flash Player no longer loads in Internet Explorer and Edge browser unless an administrator account is being used, and for the moment, no workaround seems to be available.

Some of these users claim they are browsing the web with a standard account in order to prevent exposing their computers to online threats, so enabling administrator privileges is not exactly what they’re willing to do in order to run Flash.

No confirmation from Microsoft

At this point, it’s not entirely clear which of the updates released by Microsoft is breaking down Flash Player, but while some say it’s the January batch of patches that is causing issues, others claim it all started happening following the February release.

“Every since the Windows 10 Update in early January the Adobe Flash Player does not work in Internet Explorer 11 or Edge in Standard Account.  It does work in Administrator Account, but I do not like to search the Web with Administrator Privileges.  Please help me solve this issue, because I am always using Flash on the Internet,” one user explains.

“I have the same issue. Brand new windows 10 laptop. Applied all updates and Flash only runs in Edge and IE11 if run as an administrator,” another one confirms.

Microsoft hasn’t yet acknowledged the problem, so it’s hard to proceed with manual fixes, as it’s not very clear which update could be causing all this trouble. The only way to get around this bug is to manually uninstall every update installed since January 2016 and check back to see if Flash Player works as expected in Internet Explorer or Edge browser.