I always get such great questions from the readers but sometimes I get really great topics by simply listening to conversations around me.

For some reason, as soon as I hear the words “my computer” I know right then that it’s going to be followed by something along the lines of “is acting up” or “hasn’t been working right.”

That’s just what the situation was when I was out and about recently and overheard a group of people who were upset about their computers and swapping horror stories about what they’ve been going through.

One of the topics that came up often was that of the annoying update thing that pops up every time they turn on their computer, nagging them to update Adobe Flash Player.

“What is it for?” asked one person while another responded with “I don’t know… I heard it’s a virus!”

Flash Player intallation screen.

So, let’s talk a minute about Flash and why it’s important to keep it up to date.

Flash (originally designed by Macromedia and later bought out by Adobe) is a scripting language that allows your computer to display and interact with what we call “Rich Media” over the Internet through your web browser.

In the past, before Flash and other languages, you could only view static content that didn’t have any moving images and couldn’t perform tasks or interact with the user. Browsers were only able to show you things and that was about the depth of your online experience.

Then came Java, Flash, Shockwave, Air and most recently Silverlight. These are all programming languages that allow us to view videos, presentations, having moving graphics, work with databases and even interact with software on our desktop computers.

The Internet is a whole new medium because of these languages and we are now able to do anything our hearts desire through our browsers (these days we call it using the “Cloud”).

So, with that in mind, the reason you have it on your computer is because you have visited a website in the past that used Flash and it prompted you to download the Flash player in order to view the site, so you did.

Since then, your browser has been displaying Flash driven sites to you seamlessly and you never even knew that that’s what you were looking at. Pretty convenient, huh? I agree.

Now, on to the updating. Flash, like all other scripting languages, has evolved and been streamlined to use less resources on your computer and give you a faster delivery of rich media content. There have also been several fixes to security problems with the software that leave your system open to attacks by malicious websites.

If you don’t update your Flash player then you could fall victim to some really nasty problems that are lurking in the shadows of the Internet. Because Adobe is concerned about that, they have built in an update service that checks for updates to the software every time you turn on your computer. It’s a way of helping you stay protected without you having to think about it. So, that being said, it’s a good thing!

My suggestion, update your Flash whenever it asks you to and then you won’t have to worry about getting problems as a result of running an older version of the software.

Or, if you don’t think you’re using Flash and you just want to be done with it, uninstall the software until you visit a site and are prompted once again to download and install the latest version. Then, uninstall it again once you’re done using that site.

Either way, don’t be afraid of it. It’s necessary software for some and useless to others but in the end it’s just there to make things so much better for you on the web.

If you have any questions about your computer or you’d like to recommend a topic for the article, please feel free to contact me by emailing: chad@bluescreenradio.com or by visiting facebook.com/bluescreenradio.

Happy Computing!