Three years ago, Adobe announced that Flash Player, once the cornerstone of online interactive content, was coming to an end. That day has finally arrived. Adobe strongly recommends that users uninstall Flash from their computers immediately.

On January 1, Adobe ended support for Flash. According to Adobe's Flash end-of-support page, "Adobe does not plan to issue updates or security patches for Flash Player after the end-of-support date. Adobe strongly recommends that all users uninstall Flash Player immediately."

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The reason Adobe so strongly urges users to uninstall Flash is that Flash has always been a security nightmare.

According to an article by Adam Palmer in Infosecurity Magazine, the National Vulnerability Database returned 1,122 records for Flash Player, the FBI and CIA ranked Flash Player in the top 10 vulnerabilities routinely exploited and criminals are still trying to trick people into installing fake versions of Flash on their computers.

Studies show that 99% of Internet users do not have Flash installed on their computers. In fact, Apple stopped supporting Flash on their computers in 2010 and switched to HTML and WebGL standards. iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch do not support Flash. Chances are good that you do not have Flash installed on your computer. But just in case, you may want to follow these steps.

If you have trouble following the above steps, Adobe's uninstaller for Mac is also available.

As for sites like Homestar Runner, thanks to the Ruffle Project, it continues to work with an emulated version of Flash. Emulation is not perfect, so some games may not play as you remember them. However, the Ruffle Project aims to solve the emulation problem. New episodes of Homestar Runner are also live on YouTube.