adobe flash player safe to install

perfectly safe to install it?
should i go to adobe.com and download from there or do it via opera, opera says "you need to download adobe flash player plug-in to view this page properly"



thank you..........

 

If you want to view Flash content, then certainly go to http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer.html to install it. My preference will always be to download from the source if possible.

No one can say "perfectly safe" for a third party web plugin - but Flash is nowhere near as unsafe as Sun Java. Statistically infections from Flash are mainly due to people using long out-of-date versions, while overall infections due to Flash are quite low.

My own experience: keeping Flash to date has been more than enough to stay safe over the years, despite deliberate exposure to hundreds of infected pages.

 

I always download it from FileHippo and never had any security problems. When you download it from Adobe you have to jump through a lot of hoops that are totally unnecessary. If it's for Opera, download the one that says "Non-IE" and select either 32 or 64 bit. After it's downloaded, close your browser and install Flash. Your browser should automatically detect it when you reopen it.

 

very kind of both of you to provide such assistance

much appreciated

 

I always download Flash from here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html (exe installer)

It's a "clean" installer, no toolbars, no nothing. It just works. Bookmark this link.

 

There are numerous security concerns with Adobe products, especially Adobe Flash. I will try to highlight some of them.

Adobe Flash stores an "LSO" or local shared object in your Browser every time you visit a site that contains Flash content. As well as Browser Helper Objects, BHO's in MSCONFIG.

These, for the most part, can now be controlled via a settings manager, now available through your control panel. Like Browser cookies, these must be managed and purged at all times.

Ideally one does not want to allow Adobe to store any content on your PC for the short term or long term.

There are several other security issues that draw the ire of security professionals, such as myself.

Not announcing releases via their supposed normal release channels shown, here, here, here. None of those announce any instance of the latest release of Adobe Flash Player 11.3.300.268

In addition to these security concerns, there is also the added annoyance to Adobe Flash offering third party software such as Google Toolbar and Google Chrome, these would be installed, by default, if the user does not opt-out of these third party offerings prior to the installations.

Since Adobe Flash is used across the Web, one generally has no choice but to use it under a Windows operating environment.

The choice is yours.