The stability of this ActiveX control was paramount. If the Flash ActiveX control crashed, it often took the entire Internet Explorer process ( iexplore.exe ) down with it, causing "Blue Screen of Death" scenarios in older, poorly managed systems.
The was a marvel of its time. It brought 3D gaming, HD video, and rich internet applications to the masses when HTML was still struggling with simple animations. It turned Internet Explorer into a pseudo-operating system. However, its deep integration with Windows via ActiveX was its fatal flaw.
In previous versions, most rendering was done by the CPU (Central Processing Unit). Flash Player 11 shifted this burden to the "Chip"—the GPU. By using the graphics card to render video and 3D content, Flash Player 11 ActiveX allowed for smoother high-definition video playback and complex 3D gaming. For users in 2011, this was a revelation, allowing standard PCs to run rich media without stuttering.