May 6, 2016

OMG! It’s Time to Update Adobe AIR Again

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

It would be a tough decision. Which is worse: The constant haranguing in Windows 7 to update to Windows 10, or the persistent onslaught of reminders that a new version of Adobe AIR is available. I’m at a loss as to explain which bothers me more.

The Windows 10 update seems to be consistent. It’s usually once a week that I see the annoying blue banner, shown in Figure 1, urging me to update to Windows 10 before it’s too late — and too late can’t come soon enough.

Figure 1. The insistent and relentless Windows 10 Upgrade message.

Figure 1. Microsoft doesn’t understand that “no” means “no.”

A more persistent pest is the Adobe AIR updater, shown in Figure 2. I’ve seen this booger crop up for years on one of my PCs, the one where apparently I had the misfortune of installing Adobe AIR and now I have the constant update banners bothering me like flies around the dessert table at an outdoor party.

Figure 2. I hate this pop-up more than anything.

Figure 2. I hate this pop-up more than anything.

I think a third button should be available in the dialog box shown in Figure 2. It should read, “Please send Adobe AIR and all its programmers into a molten furnace in North Korea.” I’d click the hell out of that button.

Now the obvious answer is to uninstall Adobe AIR. So what the hell is Adobe AIR? How did it get on my PC in the first place? It’s not on every system, so it must be some specific piece of software that invited it aboard.

The Adobe website doesn’t answer any of my questions about Adobe AIR in its FAQ. Here’s the actual answer to the question, “What is Adobe AIR?”:

Adobe AIR is a cross-operating-system runtime that lets developers combine HTML, JavaScript, Adobe Flash® and Flex technologies, and ActionScript® to deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) on a broad range of devices including desktop computers, netbooks, tablets, smartphones, and TVs. AIR allows developers to use familiar tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver®, Flash Builder®, Flash Catalyst®, Flash Professional, or any text editor to build their applications and easily deliver a single application installer that works across operating systems.

Seriously? What in god-forsaken hell does all that mean?

My translation: Some program I installed on the one PC uses Adobe AIR. To find out which program it is, you must attempt to uninstall Adobe AIR. At that point, a warning dialog box appears and alerts you to which programs use the service. Those programs would apparently suffer perilous demise as the absence of Adobe AIR.

On my PC, apparently the program that relies to death upon Adobe AIR is Intuit’s QuickBooks. I use that program to keep the books for my business. And, yes, the program displays Acrobat files, which is probably how it relies upon Adobe AIR. That’s okay, but what’s with the incessant updates? Is the program that much of a security risk?

I just wish Adobe would get their act together. Stealth updates would be nice. Or just something a little less intrusive than an annoying dialog box, one that pops up and bugs me all too often.

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