Many users are concerned about the sudden appearance of Flash Player alerts or warnings when using Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 8 8.1 and Windows 10. These warnings or alert boxes pop up on some but not all sites that use flash and warn about action script and other flash features. This is absolutely nothing to worry about. You have not been infected. The sites in question are not trying to install malware or anything to your computer.

What has happened is that in the August 2015 Windows updates, Microsoft has accidentally updated the embedded flash player in Internet Explorer 11 to use the debugger version instead of the “normal” version. If you go to and select the check now button you see 18.0.0.232 (debug version) as the installed version of Flash Player in Internet Explorer 11. It should be 18.0.0.232 Which is the latest ” normal” secure version of Flash Player for Internet Explorer

The debugger version works in exactly the same way as the normal version, it just displays warnings or alerts when it tries to display certain wrongly/badly coded flash images or movies or it finds flash instructions that were meant for older versions of flash that no longer work in the updated flash player versions. This feature is intended for developers to help them create flash movies or images with some user interaction.

The alert boxes look something like these and will normally pop up in the top left hand corner of your browser. Just select the dismiss all button and continue to browse normally.

Microsoft appear to have been informed about it by several users and it is hoped that they will soon issue a new update for flash player for Windows 8/8.1 and windows 10 to avoid the worry and confusion.

Update 14 August 2021: Microsoft have finally acknowledged the problem are looking into it

Known Issues With This Security Update

  • After you install this security update on a computer that is running Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2, you may receive an error message that resembles any of the following:
    Adobe Flash Player
    An ActionScript error has occurred.
    Note This error does not affect the functionality of the security update. The security update still provides the protection that is described in Microsoft security advisory 2755801.

Microsoft Security Advisory Link
Microsoft is researching this problem and will post more information in this article when the information becomes available.

You cannot install or update Flash Player yourself on Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10 and have to wait for Microsoft to issue an update via Windows Update.
Please just ignore the alerts or pop up boxes for now and wait for Microsoft to issue the correct Flash Player version for Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10