Windows XP Fully Remove Adobe Flash

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Please also see a more complete removal tool

Fix broken Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX Installs, Fully Remove Flash 10

Check out this registry key for the packaged GUID, (note yours will be different, I think this was from Flash v10.2) you will have to search for the ProductName string value under each one. 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\E2B30D5E4D2BF7746AD0E891968D12AF

Look for the line below in the key you have just found, here is the GUID for Flash contained in it. (Note its actually the same thing encoded, see below to decode it) 

C:\WINDOWS\Installer\{E5D03B2E-B2D4-477F-A60D-8E1969D821FA}\ARPPRODUCTICON.exe

You can then try a normal remove (with a log if you wish, otherwise omit the /Li ending bit) followed by an msizap 

msiexec /x {E5D03B2E-B2D4-477F-A60D-8E1969D821FA} /qn /Li "c:\temp\flashlog.txt"
msizap TWAP {E5D03B2E-B2D4-477F-A60D-8E1969D821FA}

You should see HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx has now gone amongst other things.

Then remove the Flash folder. 

C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash

If you are using Windows AD pushed out system (Mandatory software) to deploy it, you will also need to remove the following key to get it reinstalled. (You will need to search through AppMgmt keys to find the right one, note the GUID isnt related here. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy\AppMgmt\{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}, Deployment Name, Adobe Flash blah blah


  • This will get rid of 1612 and 1714 errors like this...

msiexec /i install_flash_player_10_active_x.msi TRANSFORMS=Flash10-1.mst ISCHECKFORPRODUCTUPDATES="0" REBOOT=REALLYSUPPRESS ARPSYSTEMCOMPONENT=1 /qn /Li "c:\temp\flashlog.txt"

Log file...

MSI (s) (30:9C) [09:03:36:656]: Product: Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX -- Error 1714.The older version of Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX cannot be removed. Contact your technical support group. System Error 1612. Action ended 09:03:36: RemoveExistingProducts. Return value 3. Action ended 09:03:36: INSTALL. Return value 3.


  • How these GUID's are encoded for anyone who cares.
{12345678-ABCD-WXYZ-1234-ABCDEFGHIJKL} 
String manipulation steps: Action Original GUID section - Packed GUID Section Reverse first 8 characters 12345678 87654321 
Reverse next 4 characters  ABCD DCBA 
Reverse next 4 characters WXYZ ZYXW 
Reverse next 2 characters 12 21 
Reverse next 2 characters 34 43 
Reverse next 2 characters AB BA 
Reverse next 2 characters CD DC 
Reverse next 2 characters EF FE 
Reverse next 2 characters GH HG 
Reverse next 2 characters IJ JI 
Reverse next 2 characters KL LK 
Recombine characters without any curly braces or hyphens to see your packed GUID: 
87654321DCBAZYXW2143BADCFEHGJILK
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