The Redmond company provided it as an optional update. Because the Flash Player was definitely a discontinued model, but was still officially supported by Adobe. That has changed in the meantime, however, and the manufacturer himself ensures, as far as he can, that existing installations no longer run Flash content. After all, there are no more updates and any remaining security gaps could be exploited without major resistance.
Microsoft has now started to offer the KB4577586 installation to all users via Windows Update. The installation files have a newer date, February 16, 2021, but these are the same files that have been available since last October. The date change is probably only intended to avoid irritation for some users.
Everything must Go
KB4577586 ensures that all code components of the Flash Player are removed from the Windows installation. In addition, the Adobe software can no longer be installed at all. Users would then only get them back on a computer via a system restore. But even if Flash were available again, further tricks would be needed to get the execution of content back, since Adobe is now actively preventing this.
The ultimate end of technology came on January 12th. The Adobe technology was previously the guarantee for interactive web content for a very long time. However, there are now various options available in the open web standards to implement them with official means. And since Flash basically always represented a security risk, the final removal of the player from the Windows installations should also represent an important measure to protect the user.