Installation Icon Disappears w/out installing w/out error msg

[boweasel]

64 bit Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 on an ASUS laptop.  First noticed a problem with itunes - saying 'itunes has detected a problem with your audio configuration.'

I checked youtube on IE9, and the video and audio were fine.  On Chrome however, youtube gave me a msg about needing to install flash player.  Firefox gave me a msg about the plug-in for Shockwave being vulnerable and in need of updating.   I never bothered to check any version numbers and simply uninstalled Flash entirely using the Flash Uninstaller I downloaded from Adobe.

Now I have no flash player and, although I can run the Flash Installer, nothing ever happens.  If I download the installation executable, and dbl click ite, I get the UAC warning.  Clicking OK makes the icon disappear from my desktop without giving me any error message.

I have attempted to install by downloading and installing using safe mode with networking and gotten the same result.  I even tried first downloading in normal mode, restarting in safe mode, and installing.  The icon still disappears.

I'm not sure what I should be looking for in Event Viewer.

I have run sfc /scannow and no integrity violations were detected 

I have run a Quick scan with MS Security Essential, and it was clean.  I am currently 7 minutes into a full scan.

********

UPDATE

I saw that a fellow named Mike M replied to another poster just a few hours ago, and his suggetsion was to provide 2 direct install links - 1 for IE and 1 for the other browsers.  The IE install went perfectly, and I can now, once again play youtube videos in IE.  I had less success with the other install.  Firefox 26 gives me an error box about Shockwave not responding, and I can cancel or continue to see if it responds.  Continuing gives me 'An error occurred.  Please try again later'  It is the same video I successfully watched in IE.  Chrome gives me ''The Adobr Flash Player is required for videp playback and provides a link to get the latest Flash Player.  Of course, I thought I had just done that.

[C_F_McBlob]

Having Flash Player up to date is one part of the battle. The other is Shockwave. If you do interactive stuff like Facebook games, or Pogo, you need to have Shockwave up to date too.

I recommend a "full clean install":

Download the following by right clicking and selecting wither "save target as" (IE) or "Save Link As" (Firefox):

Flash Player Uninstaller

Shockwave Player Uninstaller

Flash Player for ActiveX (Internet Explorer)

Flash Player Plug-in (All other browsers)

Shockwave Player 12 FULL Installer (other browsers)

Note: The following isn't a download, It's a link you'll NEED TO visit with IE to get to the Shockwave Player 12 FULL Intsaller (ActiveX for IE)

Save five above files to your Downloads folder. DON'T run anything yet.

Reboot your system completely.

BEFORE opening anything else, go to your Downloads folder and run the Uninstallers.

Go to: C/Windows/System32 and delete the Macromed folder.

Go to: C/Windows/SysWOW64 and delete the Macromed folder.

Open your Registry Editor (Start>Run or press the Windows key + R and type "regedit" [minus the quotes] then click OK).

In the Registry Editor, go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE and delete the Macromedia folder.

Goto: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software and delete the other Macromedia folder.

Close the Registry Editor and empty your Recycle BIn.

Run the Flash Player ActiveX installer, the Flash Player (other browsers) installer, and the Shockwave FULL installer downloaded previously.

Then open IE and visit the above link to install the ActiveX FULL shockwave plugin. (Note: it says "11" but it's 12)

You've no doubt noticed I mentioned NOTHING about Chrome in all of this.
That's because Chrome uses its own "proprietary" build of Flash Player, and you CAN'T update or reinstall it here.

[boweasel]

Thanks, but I've a couple flies in the ointment.

In the link you provided to install ActiveX FULL shockwave plugin for IE, I gather that I'm to go partway down the page to Install Shockwave Player on a 64-bit Windows operating system.  Problem is that this laptop only seems to have a workable 64 bit version of IE.  When I open Program Files (X86) and open the Internet Explorer folder, clicking on iexplore,does nothing.  However I don't really care, since youtubes play on IE.

And since I've already done all of your steps up to the IE SW plugin, I assumed that youtubes would now play in Firefox. 

They don't.  I still get the  error box about Shockwave not responding, cancel or continue, and continuing still gives me 'An error occurred. Please try again later' 

And what do I do about Chrome?  That actually is the default browser on the laptop.  All I get there is 'An error occurred...',same as Firefox msg.

[C_F_McBlob]

Try resetting Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems

Usually a replacement of the Shockwave and FP plugins does the trick.

[boweasel]

Resetting Firefox did nothing.  I used Revo Uninstaller to remove Chrome, now I can't reinstall it because it says it needs some Windows Updates before Chrome can be installed, and I can't acces the Windows Updaye page - it just sits there when I go through Start/All Programs/Windows Updates....

[C_F_McBlob]

Start>Control Panel>System and Security>Windows Update>Check for Updates

[boweasel]

One important Update and 1 optional. A Net Framework 4.5.1 update (important) failed with an unknown error - 00000001 and although IE10 installed correctly, it was unusable both in 64 and 32 bit. Unfortunately uninstalling IE10 and going back to IE9 did nothing, so at this point even IE9 is useless, so I've now lost Chrome and IE. .

[C_F_McBlob]

Sounds like you've got some serious OS issues.

Have you run a System File Check (SFC)?
Start>Run (or press the Windows key + R) and type "sfc /scannow" (minus the quotes and with a space between sfc and the /)

It'll check all of your system files and repair what needs it.

[boweasel]

sfc /scannow found no integrity violations.  Startup Repair (accessed through F8) found no problems.  Chkdsk /r /f detected no problems.