Adobe Air probably came preinstalled on your computer if OEM, as some of the programs use it and if you are using a home build, then one or more of the programs you have installed will use it just as a program may need to use of the MS Visual C++ Redistributables.
I forget what I downloaded now, but that installed the 2012 whereas previously I only had up to 2010.
You could create a restore point or system image and then uninstall it to see which programs cease to function.
After reading your thread, I checked my version against the latest and found mine was still at v.9 and so updated it to the current v.14.
The reason I don't get any prompts for Java or Adobe updates is because I have their updaters unchecked in msconfig, as I prefer as little as possible in my Startup menu.
