When is Flash Active?

[CoMoMacUser]

I'm debating whether to install Flash on my new MBA. I want maximum battery life, but there are many sites where I need Flash. For example, I need to download Yammer, whose website requires Flash to access the download link.

Does Flash run only when the browser is running? Or is it running in the background -- and thus consuming power -- when I'm working on a Word doc or reading email?

Thanks.

 

[Peace]

Open your activity monitor and watch whenever you go to a site that uses flash.

It tells you when the safari flash plugin is running.

But to answer your question as the default it only runs when you open a flash file and stops when you close the flash

 

[simsaladimbamba]

It runs only when there is a Flash object active, thus a browser needs to be open and a website with Flash needs to be open too.

There are a variety of Flash blockers for all the four major browsers available.
A Flash blocker does what it says, it blocks Flash content, but via a click on the marked Flash object, the Flash object can be activated and used.

• Safari: ClickToFlash, for which there is an extension and a plug-in; CTF allows you to download YouTube and other kinds of MPEG-4 encoded video too.
• Opera: has a built-in Flash blocker
• Firefox: Flashblock is an add-on to block Flash
• Chrome: FlashBlock is an extension to block Flash