It figures, the day after I updated a number of computers at work a new update to Adobe Flash would come out. The good news is that this update brings with it some fixes for much publicized problems. The big features in this update include a native desktop control panel and the ability to delete Flash Cookies, a function to be incorporated with major browsers. The other features include incorporating auto-update for Mac OSX and becoming compatible with Android 3.1 Honeycomb.
The Adobe Security blog highlights and explains the privacy and security features:
- Adobe coordinated with the open-source browser community to develop the ClearSiteData NPAPI. This new API allows the browsers to communicate a user’s desire to wipe user data stored by installed browser plugins. Now, when end-users go into their browser settings to clear their browser history or clear their cookies, they will be able to clear both their browser data as well as their plugin data. This API was designed so that any plugin can participate, and Flash Player is the first plugin to support the new API. The Google Chrome team currently offers browser support for the feature in their dev channel. We expect to have official support across all open source browsers in the near future.
- In addition to coordinating with the open-source browsers, Adobe also teamed up with Microsoft to provide equivalent functionality within Internet Explorer. With today’s launch, end-users can start taking advantage of this functionality in Internet Explorer 8 and 9. Microsoft even created a demo page, so that end-users can try out the functionality.
- Another key focus area was to improve the Flash Player Settings Manager itself by making it easier for end-users to manage their Flash Player settings. In January, Emmy Huang, group product manager for Flash Player, announced our native control panel for Flash Player 10.3. Until now, end-users could manage their Flash Player settings by right-clicking on content written for Flash Player and selecting “Global Settings…” or by visiting the online Flash Player Settings Manager. The online version of the Flash Player Settings Manager was not very intuitive for end-users. With Flash Player 10.3, we have created a new native control panel for Windows, Macintosh and Linux desktops that will allow end-users to manage all of the Flash Player settings, including camera, microphone and Local Shared Objects. The control panel can still be found by right-clicking on content written for Flash Player and selecting “Global Settings.” However, starting with Flash Player 10.3, it can now also be found in the Control Panel or System Settings for your operating system. As an example, on Windows operating systems, the new native control panel in Flash Player 10.3 can be found under Control Panel ->Programs.
The native control panel is something that has been around for a while as demonstrated by Java. You’ll find it on the Control Panel, All Control Panel Items, or under Programs if you use a different view.
The control panel should also be a step forward for security as it allows for checking for updates automatically for both the Internet Explorer ActiveX version as well as the plugin version for other browsers. You can manually check for updates as well with the Check Now button.
Grabbing the updates through the Check Now button will hopefully get the latest updates without having to mess around with Adobe DLM (Download Manager) or other unnecessary add-ons you get when downloading it from the Adobe Get Flash page. If not, the direct links on this previous 404TS article still work perfectly to get straight to the setup executables.
Internet Explorer has incorporated the ability to delete Flash Cookies from within the browser for IE8 and IE9 while Chrome has it in their dev track.
Update your Adobe Flash to 10.3 and watch for the new features in your browser with later updates.