I am seeing an issue with my Windows 7 64bit / IE8 machine following an update for Adobe Flash or Shockwave via SCUP (4.5)/ SCCM (2007 R2). If IE is open when the update occurs, any webpage that contains shockwave or flash content will display the Protected Mode prompt e.g. This Program will open outside of Protected Mode. Internet Explorers Protected mode ... Name: Adobe Flash Player Publisher: Adobe Systems Incorporated Details: ...64\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil10i_ActiveX.exe If you close all open IE windows then the issue goes away. I have also found the issue does not occur if you run the update locally on the machine without going through SCUP / SCCM. I have seen the following articles from Microsoft and Adobe, but they are related to IE7 and Vista, not IE8 and Windows7: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934282/en-us http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/401/kb401499.html Has anyone seen this or have any idea on how to fix this, without having to close and re-open IE? I have 2000+ users that will need to get these patches and it will cause a lot of headaches if we have to close IE before the error messages will go away.