IE for Windows RT and Windows 8 Drops Flash Whitelist

March 13, 2013
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You can’t have Flash. You can sort of have Flash. Never mind, use Flash all you want!

That’s pretty much been the way things have gone when it comes to the Modern app of Internet Explorer. At one point in time Microsoft was strongly sticking behind the idea that you could only use the Flash experience on the desktop, with no Flash support coming to the Modern Start UI at all. They later reversed this decision and instead created a whitelist that would allow a limited number of Flash-based sites to work on IE10 for the Modern UI.

With HTML5’s push towards dominance coming slower than Microsoft would like, it seems that Microsoft is ditching its whitelist effort altogether. From now on, you can run Flash sites on the Modern UI version of Explorer unless it is one of the few sites on a blacklist.

The blacklist is made up of viewer than 4% of the web’s flash sites. Why were these 4% blocked? According to the IE Blog, “the small number of sites that are still incompatible with the Windows experience for touch or that depend on other plug-ins” were the ones that ended up blocked.

While HTML5 has seen quite a bit of growth, the reason why Microsoft is backing down is probably because about 42% of the top 1000 sites on the web are still using Flash technology. Personally, I hate devices that block out Flash, simply because I use quite a few sites that still seem to incorporate it.

That said, I hate Flash and wish that everyone would dtich it and move on. While experiences probably vary, I have always found it more than a little buggy and haven’t had nearly the same level of problems with HTML5 videos as I have with Adobe Flash sites. Not too mention that HTML5 seems much more capable of offering advanced features in gaming and beyond.

What do you think of Microsoft’s decision to remove the whitelist for Flash sites? I think they made the right decision, though again I hope this doesn’t give Flash more ‘ammunition’ for sticking around longer. With many tablets still offering less-than-great (or none-existent) flash experiences, you’d think that all the major sites would have moved on by now.

Anyhow, tell us what you think about Flash and the whole situation, below in the comments.

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Mike Johnson is a writer for The Redmond Cloud - the most comprehensive source of news and information about Microsoft Azure and the Microsoft Cloud. He enjoys writing about Azure Security, IOT and the Blockchain.

All Comments

  • It’s about time. IE 10 was nearly unusable because Flash was blocked for so many sites, and there aren’t any other browser options for RT.

    Misterbear Fapp March 13, 2013 11:23 am Reply
  • I knew MS was going to get beat up over the Flash whitelist. It was only a matter of time begore they went to a blacklist instead.

    Now they need to enable Silverlight as well in order to make IE10 RT a first class experience.

    Mark March 17, 2013 4:01 pm Reply
  • I knew MS was going to get beat up over the Flash whitelist. It was only a matter of time begore they went to a blacklist instead.
    Now they need to enable Silverlight as well in order to make IE10 RT a first class experience.

    Mark March 17, 2013 4:01 pm Reply

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