Uninstall Flash Player - Windows

As you probably have already heard endlessly, Adobe Flash Player will reach end of life on December 31 2020. https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.html

Adobe has provided an uninstaller that works fairly well to remove stand-alone installations of Flash Player. https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html

Please note the information in RED at the top of the uninstall directions:

These instructions are NOT applicable to Flash Player included with Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer on Windows 8 and later or with Google Chrome on all supported operating systems. Please visit the Flash Player Help page for instructions on enabling (or disabling) Flash Player in various browsers.

“Most” modern browsers have built-in Flash support. Managing that integration is not in scope for this Worklet (as that topic would better be covered on how to manage Flash per browser. It is disabled by default in most of these browsers, and can be managed with policies).

Requirement - Download the uninstall_flash_player.exe from the link above, and upload it into your Worklet.

Evaluation Code:

<#

.SYNOPSIS

  Check for presence of Adobe Flash Player on the target device



.DESCRIPTION

  Read 32-bit and 64-bit registry to find matching applications



  Exits with 0 for compliance, 1 for Non-Compliance. 

  Non-Compliant devices will run Remediation Code at the Policy's next scheduled date.



.NOTES

  A scriptblock is used to workaround the limitations of 32-bit powershell.exe.

  This allows us to redirect the operations to a 64-bit powershell.exe and read

  the 64-bit registry without .NET workarounds.



.LINK

http://www.automox.com

#>



# The ScriptBlock method used here is to allow a 32-bit agent process

# to access the 64-bit registry on 64-bit Windows. This is necessary if the application

# isn't known to be 32-bit only.





$scriptblock = {

    #Define Registry Location for the 64-bit and 32-bit Uninstall keys

    $uninstReg = @('HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall','HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall')



    # Define the App Name to look for

    # Look at a machine with the application installed unless you're sure the formatting of the name/version

    # Specifically the DisplayName. This is what you see in Add/Remove Programs. This doesn't have to be exact.

    # Default behavior uses -match which is essentially "DisplayName contains VLC"

    ##################

    $appName = 'Adobe Flash Player'

    ##################



    # Get all entries that match our criteria. DisplayName matches $appname

    $installed = @(Get-ChildItem $uninstReg -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Get-ItemProperty | Where-Object { ($_.DisplayName -match $appName) })



    # If any matches were present, $installed will be populated. If none, then $installed is NULL and this IF statement will be false.

    # The return value here is what the ScriptBlock will send back to us after we run it.

    # 1 for Non-Compliant, 0 for Compliant

    if ($installed) {

        return 1

    } else { return 0 }

}





$exitCode = & "$env:SystemRoot\sysnative\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -WindowStyle Hidden -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command $scriptblock

Exit $exitCode

Remediation Code:

# REQUIRES -Version 2.0

<#

.SYNOPSIS

    This script allows an admin to uninstall Adobe Flash Player via Automox for Windows Devices

.DESCRIPTION

    This script uninstalls Adobe Flash Player add ons and plugins on Windows.  It will not uninstall the built-in 

flash players in IE, Edge, or Chromium browsers as defined by Adobe



    This script may not work on all systems. Modify to fit your needs



    PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING

    1) This script assumes you have downloaded the uninstall_flash_player.exe file from https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/support/uninstall_flash_player.exe

    and uploaded the file within your Worklet.

    2) The Flash add-in\plugin will remain active if a linked browser is open.  Removal will complete once the browser(s) is closed or the device is restarted.

.NOTES

    File Name       :Adobe_FlashPlayerUninstall_Rem.ps1

    Author          :Automox

    Prerequisite    :PowerShell V2 over win7 and upper

.LINK

    http://www.automox.com

    https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html

#>



#Handle Exit Codes:

trap {  $host.ui.WriteErrorLine($_.Exception); exit 90 }



function Adobe_FlashPlayerUninstall_Rem {



    <#

    .SYNOPSIS

        This function allows Automox to Uninstall Adobe Flash Player plug-ins and add-ons for Windows.

    .DESCRIPTION

    

    .EXAMPLE

        Adobe_FlashPlayerUninstall_Rem

    .NOTES

    #>



    #############Change the settings in this block#######################

    $fileName = 'uninstall_flash_player.exe'

    $arg = '-uninstall'

    #####################################################################



    # Uninstall

    Try {$process = Start-Process -FilePath "$fileName" -ArgumentList "$arg" -Wait -PassThru -ErrorAction Stop

         Write-Output "Adobe Flash Player Uninstall Finished...`n"

	 exit 0

    }

    Catch { $Exception = $error[0].Exception.Message + "`nAt Line " + $error[0].InvocationInfo.ScriptLineNumber

            Write-Output $Exception

            exit 90

    }

}

Adobe_FlashPlayerUninstall_Rem