Adobe Flash problem

I sure hope someone here can help me. About a month or so ago I clicked on a link for a web article (from WebMD) and instead of the article I got a sentence on the screen telling me I had to have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player to view it. They provided a D/L link so I clicked on that.....afterwords the AFP D/L page said it was successfull but I still couldn't view the WebMD article.

I have about pulled all my hair out since then. I have tried numerous times to D/L AFP, from the Adobe site as well as links from various other sites that won't let me see whatever it is and that also give me the sentence telling me I need the new version. I may have uninstalled whatever version of AFP I had on here early on because the directions somewhere told me to, I don't remember for sure....if I did that was the last time I've been able to find ANY version of AFP on here. I've tried the troubleshooting from Adobe.....no help and then I noticed the help items were dated sometime in 2007! I've tried shutting off all my security programs and that didn't help, I changed (as the Adobe site recommended) the 2 Active X controls to 'prompt'......nothing I've read to try has worked. It apparently won't D/L, or else I just can't find it on here, or if it does D/L it won't install.

A friend of mine had trouble with it too at first but hers 'just started working' when she booted up her pc one morning. There are a lot of web pages I can't see now and it's aggravating! I'm running Vista with IE8 (on a Toshiba laptop, if that matters) Cable connection from Comcast. Am I leaving out any crucial details?

I will be most appreciative if someone can suggest a solution here. My pc seems to be running O.K. except for this problem.....please help!

thanks!
Becky