Flash was once the dominant web technology for creating interactive and multimedia content. It powered countless websites, games, animations, and videos that entertained and educated millions of users. However, Flash also had many drawbacks, such as security issues, performance problems, and compatibility challenges. As newer web standards like HTML5 emerged, Flash became obsolete and was eventually discontinued by Adobe in 2020.

But what if you want to play some of your favorite games? Imagine playing my Quantum Of Light or Dungeon Screener games on your browser today, just like you used to. Or watching some of your favorite Flash animations that bring back memories. Sounds awesome, right? But there's a problem: Most browsers don't support Flash anymore. That means you won't be able to access any of the Flash content that you love or created. But don't worry, I have a solution for you.

How to Run Flash Today

In this blog post, I will show you how to run Flash today using a pre-EOL version of the Opera browser that has a built-in Flash Player. This way, you can enjoy all the Flash content still available on the web by running the classic Flash Player plugin. And the best part is, it's very easy to do. Just follow these simple steps and you'll be ready to go in no time.

Please note that using an old version of any browser is not recommended due to security risks. Use it only for the purpose of running flash content on sites that you trust. Do not use it for viewing other websites or entering sensitive information.

Step 1: Download an old Opera browser

The first step is to download an old version of Opera browser that still supports Flash. These are generally versions from before the EOL date (December 31, 2020), but I recommend choosing a bit older version, so the flash content won't be obstructively blocked, forcing you to go through several annoying menu dialogs each time you want to run a flash movie.

You can find a lot of archived versions of Opera browser here: https://get.opera.com/ftp/pub/opera/desktop/
Choose a version that is compatible with your operating system and download it to your computer.
I tried Opera version 66 for 64-bit Windows from 13 February 2020 and it worked perfectly.

Step 2: Install the Opera browser

Now we want to install Opera, but it is important to suppress its auto-update mechanism, otherwise the browser will update itself as soon as it gets started. First make a temporally shortcut of the installer you just downloaded (right click and chose Properties) and modify the shortcut as shown in the screenshot:

Basically you have to add " --launchopera=0" (including the space character) to the "Target" field. This is needed so when the browser is installed it wont auto-run and trigger its auto-update process right away. Run the installer only when you're done with the above.

Step 3: Disable the Opera browser auto-update mechanism

Once the browser is installed you have to modify the Opera browser shortcut that was created with the installation. We do this in the same way as we did with the installer shortcut (by the way at this point you can freely delete the installer executable and the temporally shortcut created in the previous step). Alter the shortcut as seen in the following screenshot:

This time you have to add " --disable-update" (including the space character) to the "Target" field. From now on use this shortcut to start Opera to avoid automatic updates, but before you finally start the browser, there is one more thing to do. You have to delete all occurrences of "opera_autoupdate.exe" executable from the system, or the browser could still decide to update itself at some point even if executed with the disable-update argument. Run a global search on your main drive and remove that file.

Step 4: Ensure everything is working as intended

Run the browser through the newly modified shortcut and navigate to the following settings page: "opera://settings/content/flash". You should see the Flash setting menu:

Here you can opt-out the "Ask first" setting, so it will be more convenient when you open webpages containing Flash movies. Go on, try to run a flash game!

Conclusion

Flash was a great web technology that enriched the online experience for many years. However, it also had many flaws that led to its demise, and also Steve Jobs hated it. Today, flash is no longer supported by most browsers and devices, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy our favorite flash content. In this blog post, I showed you how to run flash today using an old Opera browser. I hope you found this blog post helpful and informative.

Thank you for reading and happy flashing!