Adobe flash player

Hello,
Look- can we (i.e. many of the people who have written here) have one simple answer:
It happened to me 3 months ago and it is happening again to me now: the Adobe 10 flashplayer ceases to work for some reason due to its own dysfunction. So I try insatlling it once after deleting the old program, & it works for one or two videos, then it doesn't again!
There must be something simple to rectify the problem?

Also - does one 'save' it or 'run' it first? I try both ways, but no difference (I have tried installing it 30 times in the last 2 days). Also - do I have to delete Adobe Reader 8 as well before re-installing attempts are made?.

It is highly highly frustrating!

Yours, JB