The free-electron laser FLASH at DESY routinely producesup to several thousand photon pulses per second withwavelengths ranging from 44 nm down to 4.2 nm and withpulse energies of up to 500 micro Joule. After a significanttechnical upgrade in 2010, emphasis was put on consolidationand automation of operational procedures and bettercontrol of the electron/photon beam properties. Somehighlights are: on-line measurements of the electron bunchlength in the regime of several 10 fs to 100 fs, extending thewavelengths accessible to users into the water window, increasedphoton pulse energies, and the improved machinereproducibility. Construction work is ongoing for a 2ndbeam-line (FLASH2) for which commissioning will startin early 2014.