IE silently installing/updating flash?

Hi, I noticed a few times in a VM when browsing with IE9 on a website using Flash that suddenly a UAC pop-up appears for Flash player, while I didn't have flash installed, IE asked for nothing and didn't say anything about missing plugins. I just noticed on a machine that does have Flash installed(latest update of v10) that when running starting IE(default msn homepage which uses Flash) that the process FlashUtil10x_ActiveX.exe is running(though no pop-ups from UAC this time, it doesn't appear to be doing much.) It's located in \SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash and is described as Adobe® Flash® Player Installer/Uninstaller 10.3 r183. When I close IE, the process dissappears and when I start it again, the process also starts again.

 

I think there would be quite a lot more praise out there if IE was silently updating flash. I don't think something like that could have gone unnoticed, but I can't say I have any idea what you're experiencing. Any kind of "updater" program installed?

 

Not really, the machine I noticed has PSI on it, but that's still v1 and not running in the background, the VM has PSI v2 in it, but automatic updating is disabled and I also disabled starting on boot.

 

Ha, I wish.

 

You kidding? People can't handle anything silently updating, look at all the hell fire and brimstone being rained down on Mozilla for it

 

Silent updating?

Run to the safety of the fall out shelters now ....

 

I also get a warning from Online Armor when starting IE9 (->default msn homepage); 'Adobe FlashUtil11c_ActiveX.exe' wants to run.
With '11.0.1.152 ActiveX' and the '11.0.1.152 plugin' for Firefox installed and 'no automatic update' in the Flash Player Settings Manager.
Silent update with 'no updates' selected for Flash...

http://i55.tinypic.com/2d2ds9.jpg

 

Well, than it's not just me, still really strange :S

 

No one else with IE9 and Flash installed experiencing this?
And yes, it is strange.

 

No I wish it auto updated.

Same goes for Firefox.

Maybe someday.

 

Received the same UAC pop-up the other day while browsing with IE9 (no flash installed) on a McAfee webpage that had embedded flash video.

 

I just used the offline installers and installed Flash 11, and the process still launches when I visit a Flash site with IE.

 

I'm confused. You installed flash, why wouldn't the flash process launch when you visit a flash site? That's what it does.

 

Adobe gives 'Adobe FlashUtil11c_ActiveX.exe' the description 'Adobe Flash Player Installer/Uninstaller'.
Why would an installer run when you've already installed the program?

Perhaps it's simply not an installer/uninstaller but, as you write, the Flash player process, then the naming convention is just off.

 

I've been giving IE9 (64 bit) a bit of a fling since Adobe released 64 bit flash & I have not seen anything like what has been described above. My guess, although I apologise for appearing to state the obvious, is that this is being produced by some kind of program conflict, possibly a security program such as an AV. I'm running MSE as my AV.

 

Yeah that's just what it's always done.

What Daveski said probably holds some weight, from some HIPS program or something?

 

If you execute Adobe FlashUtil11c_ActiveX.exe it starts Uninstall Flash Player.
I'm not sure if this is also true for IE, but Flash runs inside the browsers own processes, not as a separate process.

 

I've seen that on IE since version 6 and on. Sometimes, when you hit a page with flash and don't have it installed, the activex popup comes up. And that's all. Hardly silent and your choice to proceed or not.
Mrk

 

When you kill the process and run another flash object it will start again, which makes it seem that it is needed, but if you move the executable to another folder so it can't be started Flash content will run without problems anyway and the process isn't running.

It wasn't an activex pop-up but an UAC pop-up, so if you have UAC off or run XP then it's completely silent.

 

Like I said, I've seen it on xp through 7, ie6 through 9, never silent.
Mrk

 

The UAC popup might be due to having changed a setting to only allow admins to install addons.