Uninstalling Old Version of Flash Before Installing New Version

[Leaf_Mold]

Windows 7

Flash 13.0 r0(206) (13.0.0 .206)

For several versions now, I have been unable to get a good installation of a new version of Flash unless I uninstall the prior version.  The new version seems to install okay.  However, my browser does not recognize it; and thus the Flash test Web site does not work. 

While I am now using Windows 7, I observed this same problem with Windows XP.  Why cannot the Flash installer handle the removal of the prior version? 

[C_F_McBlob]

Leaf Mold wrote:

While I am now using Windows 7, I observed this same problem with Windows XP.  Why cannot the Flash installer handle the removal of the prior version? 

Usually it's a registry error that prevents the overwriting of the old version. The installer can't fix that. You may have a common app between the Xp and Win7 machines that has altered the registry in both.

There is a full uninstaller: Flash Player Uninstaller

FWIW, I never use the GUI updater, and I ALWAYS do a full clean install (manually removing plug-in files and registry keys) whenever I update.