Macromedia Flash Player

[TickledToDeath]

Running off a PC using Windows XP and Internet Explorer, is it safe to install this Macromedia Flash Player to my system?
I get the warnings that it could be harmful and will not take chances yet until I hear from others about this.

TTD

 

[TMF Jeff]

Flash Player is fairly universal now. With the newer security concerns, I think Windows will warn you about anything at all that you attempt to install, as a sort of cover-our-ass gesture, but I would bet that the Flash player is installed on 80% or more of pcs.

You can tweak your security settings in the Internet Options of IE to disable any flash programs that try to run until you specifically choose to enable them, which should cover any possible security holes.

 

[His Divine Shadow]

Just adding support to Sir Jeff here...

Flash is, as he said, universal at this point. THe download itself is from Macromedia (Now part of Adobe), and is thus safe to install. It comes with no adware/spyware/malware/*Insert bad adjective here*-ware. While there are ways to use Flash to exploit weaknesses in IE, that can be said of anything. Installing Flash will not make IE any more unsecure than it already is.

 

[Soda83pop]

What they said, plus going one step further....

If you are concerned about security at all, you might want to ditch IE all together and move on to a more secure browser. I recommend Firefox, but Opera is another option.