Flash-blocking in Edge - when will it roll out to the world?

[jason-handby]

Hi there,

One of the features of the new Edge is that it blocks Flash by default, and requires the user to modify their settings if they want to restore the old behaviour of prompting to allow Flash to run.

My company is in the process of migrating from an existing Flash application to a new React-based application, but we have to support users of the Flash application for the next little while. In order for us to keep our support processes up to date, and train ops staff appropriately, it would be really helpful for us to know when this Flash-blocking change will roll out to Edge users.

I'm assuming that this isn't an "interesting" Microsoft feature, as such, it's just something which Edge does because Chromium does it from v76 onwards (and it's on the Flash roadmap which all browser makers signed up to, so it's no bad thing.) So I'm assuming that it's not a feature which will be part of some release-planning process, deciding which new things are bundled up on what dates - it will just arrive when the very first release of the new Edge hits public channels / Windows update.

So I guess my question is: does anyone know when that will be? September's "patch Tuesday"? Windows 1909 update? Some other date to be determined?

Many thanks

Jason

[#2]

Essentially, all major browser vendors will stop supporting Flash at the end of 2020, that's the official end of life date for Flash.

Here is the Chromium's official statement: (since both the new Edge and Google Chrome use the same engine)
" Flash Support Removed from Chromium (Target: Chrome 87+ - Dec 2020)"

https://www.chromium.org/flash-roadmap#TOC-Flash-Support-Removed-from-Chromium-Target:-Chrome-87---D...

and here is the official statement from Adobe themselves: 

https://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2017/07/adobe-flash-update.htmlhttps://blogs.adobe.com/convers...

[#3]

Hi @HotCakeX , thanks for your reply.

With respect, I already know this. I'm sorry if I didn't phrase my question clearly enough.

There's a specific step on the roadmap for phasing out Flash, which the Chromium roadmap refers to as "Flash disabled by default". Flash gets blocked by default rather than the user being prompted to ask if they want to allow it. Chrome implemented this in the 76 release which rolled out recently. Firefox will be implementing something similar in their Sept 3rd release. My question is, when will Edge be releasing this change?

It was originally scheduled to happen in Edge in "mid to late 2019" (see here: https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2017/07/25/flash-on-windows-timeline/ ) - but that post was written before the 'Chromiumization' of Edge, so I don't know if that's still the plan or if there is now some other schedule. Because the behaviour is now inherited from Chromium rather than being added to Edge specifically, my assumption is that it will just appear whenever the first release of the new Edge comes out.

So, does anyone have an idea of when that might be? :)

Thanks

Jason

[#4]

@jason-handby 

Yes that's exactly what I said ;) and those links I gave you are up to date and correct ones.
currently nobody knows when the stable release of the new Edge comes out, it's all just speculations. the best guess is that it will come out some time in the first half of 2020 when Windows 10 20H1 which is currently in Insider fast ring, is released. currently in 20H1 build 18956 the Edge insider replaces the old Edge, so the transition is begun!

[#5]

OK so I guess it's possible that, if new-Edge isn't likely to be released until March 2020, someone somewhere else in Microsoft will make a minor change to the existing version of Edge sooner than that, to honour Microsoft's original roadmap for phasing out Flash. Is this likely? Is there any kind of release schedule for existing Edge updates? (I'm assuming there won't be a whole lot of them.)

[#6]

Yeah i think so, that's very likely. currently no, they are just rolling out fixes and updates to the Dev and Canary build, no official talk about stable or even the beta builds.
logically they would reserve the beta channel for squashing out very minor bugs and do the final touches before rolling out the stable version of the browser. right now there are Lots of features missing in the Edge canary, i wouldn't expect the beta any time soon.