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You can get it for gecko based browsers and Chrome based browsers direct from Macromedia ftp download.  The links for each type of Flash Player are buried in an old Adobe help page that says it is for Windows 7.  However, the page is kept fully up to date for the downloads.  I have bookmarked the ftp download links in my default browser and I fetch Flash Player quickly this way.  I have been doing it this way for years on both Windows 8.0 Pro and Windows 10 Pro 1709.

The first link is for gecko based browsers and the second for Chromium based:

https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/latest/help/install_flash_player.exe

https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/latest/help/install_flash_player_ppapi.exe

(I’m not sure if ftp download links are allowed so, if not, this is the Adobe Flash Player help page where they are located UNDER “Still Having Problems”.

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

For IE and Edge, I get that from Microsoft update catalog (and make sure I have the current servicing stack update first).

 

anonymous wrote:

Yeah it was a thing. You are right that most sites would be polite, but some obscure die hard site owners would block access based on Internet Explorer’s agent string. I do wish that the screen captures had not been lost so I could provide proof.

I remember that happening. I too went from Netscape to Mozilla Suite and then also Phoenix, Firebird, Firefox. I had problems with many sites especially banking.

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HiFlyer

I share OscarCP’s confusion.  Apparently, this thread is of no concern to home users who have email via ISP’s.  I don’t even have secure login from my ISP simply because I retain my accounts with their original address from the 90’s (roadrunner) and now Spectrum owns TWC and I, like most, don’t want to change my email addresses.  (I’m still TWC legacy but eventually Charter will force me to a Spectrum account.  However, Roadrunner email accounts will be around forever I am told as changing them would be a massive and almost impossible task for Charter).

My passwords are sent in plain text (of course, I have Thunderbird 52.8 ESR manage them so I never have to type them).  If I want to change to a tiny bit of security for authentication then I will lose my Roadrunner addresses.  My accounts are all POP and I have zero desire to change that. Plus, I really dislike webmail.  Consequently, I have never used email for things that would need security.  In fact, not one of my email accounts has my real name…not even my first name as I was taught back in the 90’s to never reveal anything like your real name in email.  (Anon and Web1 was so superior to Web2 and all the insanity re social media).

The state of email for most home users is abysmal so I use it as little as necessary and mostly for forum registrations, newsletters, that sort of thing.

 

lurks about wrote:

What I think is needed is an OEM to partner long term with a distro, say Linux Mint or Ubuntu. In this partnership, the hardware is designed to work with the distro and the distro is gently nudged to better usability. Probably a couple OEM/distro packages are added to make working with the distro easier to use for regular folks. I would say Linux is very close but needs someone to get over the final hump. 

Dell already does this but it is TOO LIMITED.  If Dell would support the XPS desktop that I have bought repeatedly since 1999 (back then called XPS Dimension), my new computer would probably be running Linux rather than Win 10 Pro.  Dell supports the XPS 13 (and I think the 15 also) laptops for Linux but I don’t need or want a laptop.  I hate what has happened to Windows although I was able to tame Windows 8.0 Pro to my liking (and I deliberately did not upgrade it to 8.1. It is still running in this hostile to electronics place where I live). When I got my XPS desktop with Win 8.0 Pro in November 2012, I considered the same computer in a laptop that Dell supported for Linux (Ubuntu) but I wanted and needed a desktop.  Five years later and I was faced with the same problem of Dell supporting only a few laptops for Linux.

Plus, there are the practical issues that have nothing to do with an OEM partnering with Linux (in a larger manner than Dell already has done) such as problems with video card drivers and an nVidia card is a must for me.

I keep thinking that this current Windows 10 Pro computer is probably my last computer as Microsoft can push me almost to the b***** end but I will refuse to jump off the cliff with the remaining non-Enterprise computer users.  Lemming I am not and the time is fast approaching when non Enterprise Windows users will be expected to blindly follow over the edge.  I actually like Windows 10 (so far) and haven’t experienced ads or Candy Crush returning, etc and in one major way (for me) it is superior to Windows 8.  The huge bugaboo is Microsoft taking away (or trying very hard to do so) my control of Windows updates.  I’ve only had this computer since December and am already worn out over the almost constant struggle/worry to retain some control over Windows updates and I face years more of this time consuming stress that will likely lead to my being glad to walk away from personal computers.

Thank goodness for this site and everyone in Woody’s community!

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Bill C., HiFlyer, columbia2011

It sounds like a lot of you have ancient routers that do not automatically install firmware updates.  Linksys says if you have a newer Linksys router with automatic firmware updates (that you did not turn off) there is little if any worry.  The newer Linksys routers also force change of password during setup and Linksys thinks the older routers with generic well known passwords that many users didn’t change are the vulnerable ones as those are also ones that do not automatically install firmware updates and many users never seek out the latest firmware.

https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=246427

Plus, Linksys now has 5 years warranty and free phone support in most of the world…the USA being the big exception but it is getting better here because of users like myself who are shocked and angered to learn that most everywhere else we would get a lot more than 1.5 years of free phone support and one year of warranty (now 1.5 years even if the fine print says 1 years and these bad polices are being changed in the USA gradually).

Also, if you buy the same router from Amazon as a business router rather than home you get 5 years free phone support here in the USA and the router price is the same whether designated as a business router or home one…this is for some popular routers…mine included but I didn’t know this when I bought mine from Dell instead of from Amazon.  If you have a newer router, with reasonable warranty length and phone support, call them and have a phone tech walk you through a factory reset if you are nervous about doing it and check your router settings to see if you have the latest firmware.  If it is an older router out of warranty and support, hopefully you purchased one that can be flashed with open source firmware that is up to date.

 

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Elly, HiFlyer, AlexEiffel, columbia2011

The easiest and quickest way in 1709 (16299.334) is to right click on the Internet icon in the systray and choose Open Network and Internet Settings.  That takes you to the Status page where you click on Change Connection Properties.  That shows you your current Network Profile where you can change from private to public or the other way.

Right there also is where you set it to a metered connection (which I hope we have all done. I plan to keep 1709 for the rest of the year so I don’t have to hassle with the loss of Home Group).

As I expected, Cloudflare DNS is EXTREMELY SLOW for us in Hawaii.  According to DNS Benchmark which I have used since its inception there are 10 public DNS servers faster than Cloudflare.  The fastest are, and have always been, LOCAL ones provided by my ISP.  Open DNS and Google are slow also but not as bad as Cloudflare which pings at 62ms indicating it is located on the West Coast.  My ISP’s LOCAL DNS servers ping at 9 to 14ms.

You don’t have to wait for it to happen.  I just read Woody’s comments and looked to see when Windows Defender last updated.  It’s 3:20AM here in Hawaii and it last updated around 3PM on April 3 with the old engine still there.  I saw no reason to wait for another 12 or so hours for it to automatically update.  So, I clicked it to update now and it fetched the new engine and new definitions.

Slightly off topic, but I don’t like how Windows Defender does not have a regular update time on Windows 10.  On Windows 8.0 Pro, I set up a task (since on that OS it would not update automatically with Windows Updates disabled) so it updated at the same time every evening. I am going to do that on Windows 10 also as that way I can set it to update twice daily at specified times.

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Cascadian

woody wrote:

The finger is now being pointed to the O&O Shutup10 tool – per @juzuo the tool sets the Diagnostic Data Level to zero. Any confirmations?

Winaero Tweaker also can set the Diagnostic Data Level to zero with its Disable Telemetry choice in its Privacy Settings.  I don’t have Allow Telemetry configured in group policy but the Diagnostic Data settings are grayed out because I did check Disable Telemetry choice in Winaero Tweaker.  Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection value is 0.

None of the above matters for me at the moment since this is a new computer purchased in December running Win 10 Pro 1709 build 16299, but could be an issue six months or so from now since I have feature updates set to 365 days.  Had this issue surfaced before I purchased this computer, I would not have done so but would have stayed with my over 5 year old 8.0 Pro computer which I have been happy with (after I tamed it and deliberately did not upgrade to 8.1).  To me, this is the final straw.

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woody

GoneToPlaid wrote:

I guess those relic PS2 keyboard and mouse ports which are found on most desktop computers are good to have after all!

Dell hasn’t included PS/2 ports on its higher end XPS Special Edition desktops since around 2005. I hated when they stopped because of potential issues when booting without access to the USB keyboard (or mouse) until late in the process. Dell had the PS/2 ports much longer on some business machines but they mostly disappeared there also. The OEMs need to bring them back!

Edit to remove HTML from cur/paste

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GoneToPlaid

Now the post has appeared.  And the site is a bit faster. So, sorry for this unnecessary thread.

anonymous wrote:

Now that the author of Classic Shell has thrown in the towel (thanks for that, Win10!) I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed that some future Windows Update for 8.1 doesn’t cause breakage down the line. 

My main computer for five years (until Dec ’17) was Windows 8.0 Pro.  I still use it and deliberately did not “upgrade” it to 8.1 (which is worse than 8.0 and I did not want to have Microsoft try to force me to Windows 10 upgrade on it as Microsoft completely ignored  8.0 -as no direct upgrade to Win 10 is possible from it – which was such a blessing).  I use Start8 and Windowblinds on it from shortly after I got it. I thought about using Classic Shell but decided on Windowblinds and Start8 instead.  I love them both and immediately installed both (in version 10) on my new Windows 10 Pro computer.  $10 is nothing for what they provide in making both Win 8 and Win 10 more usable.  So, if there is a problem with Classic Shell in the future on 8.1, I would recommend you try Stardock’s Windowblinds and Start8.