Firefox29, on a new win7 computer which has never had ff installed, will not install the latest flash plugin from adobe.

Question

I promise to refrain from venting my disgust :-) but when FF 9 blew up the entire web. I had all kinds of issues so I did things like Bill Gates taught us to do. I re-installed windows 7, brand new, formatted HD and all. The very first thing I did was open IE to download FF29 from the mozilla site and it installed. I went to pages I know have fits with flash on purpose, www.nydailynews.com, for instance and got the message that no flash was installed, do I want to install it? Well, yes, I have brand new FF on a brand new computer, so to ahead. Did the usual, installed Flash, shut down, and even rebooted the computer, and golly gee, the web pages tell me I have no flash installed. Its in IE, and of course chrome, and it appears in the installed program control panel, but I can't use flash with FF 29.
I wiped the hard drive and reinstalled win 7, then installed ff 28. Went to adobe and installed their latest flash version, and still no flash in any version of firefox. I also checked the option to never update, but when I rebooted an opend FF29, it miraculously turned into FF29, and of course still does not work with the flash plugin.
I think firefox has had a world of trouble with Adobe Flash for over a year and have hoped for a solution. Basically a browser that cannot run Flash media is totally useless. I wonder why this problem was no addressed and corrected, when instead all the the resources were put into raping my computer and forcing FF29 onto it?
I am not a cry baby, who wants to complain, but will you please fix this issue so I don't have to abandon my favorite browser.. I don't enjoy Chrome, and IE is just not an option for me.
Before you make any moreoverhauls on the UI, could you fix the problems with flash. I find it a little condescending to tell a 25 year user of computers to make sure " you have the latest versions" when in fact I have a brand new install of windows and the very latest from Adobe and Mozilla and they do no wok together, even when I down grade to FF 28, which as I told you, automatically upgrades to FF 29 each time I boot up.
Please help. IF installing the latest Adobe onto a brand new hard drive and install of windows 7 fails, what do you suggest, as the usual " version issue" cannot apply here.
FWIW, I have vista on my laptop with the same problems, the same reinstalls and the same guaranteed latest versions. Since the hd is formtted, there cannot be an residual FF dlls hanging around or in the registry.
I have always seen open source as the way to the future, since the first PC arrived, but its looking like a bad idea.
If you want to build a firefox that works, I will pay for it, so long as I can get help when things break. Browsers are huge in the web, so paying for reliable performance seems like a fair thing to do.
I am sorry, but I am frustrated at the lack of progress towards a solution and really do not wish to be told to see if I am using the latest versions. I have taken every step possible and gone all the way to a brand new machine and FF does not work with flash reliably.
Help? Please?
john
_{edit: removed your mail address from public display, since the only thing it will attract are spam bots. you will be notified per mail once somebody replies to the thread. (philipp)}

Answer 1

adobe test page says it is installed. but I said, some pages I visit say I don't have it installed.
I use prefbar ( I delete it and reinstall to make sure its not an issue) usually because it lets me turn off flash and avoid the crashing and locking up but when I check the flash block on prefbar, it says " plugin is not loaded"
I posted from the machine that does not work, but it does not work on my Vista Laptop, or my daughter's computer either. In all cases, I wiped the drives and reinstalled the OS and went directly to Firefox for 29 and to adobe for their latest.
Flash IS installed on my machine... It works in IE, and Chrome, but firefox 29 does not install the flash plugin, even tho the installer says all is well
The reason I went totally clean is to make sure there was no process blocking it or if Java was creating the issue as well. The reality is, I started with a brand new computer, three times, and Flash will not load into Firefox 29 in any case
I have started clean many times now and backed up and installed ff 28. I had no problem with the flash plugin using ff28, . I would have stayed there, but when shut down ff 28 and opened it later, it "magically downgraded to version 29" and i do mean " downgraded -( even tho I had gone into options and said do not install updates.
I am grateful for your attention. I find that web browsers are very important anymore, an a non functional one makes the web a waste. I mentioned www.nydailynews.com and would really not want to make a long list of every page that demands a flash plugin, for they are legion that I don't have, mostly because when the page wants flash, FF locks up. Its will not even let me copy the URL to try and make a list, but the browser is totally locked up and I have to kill the process I get the message I have been getting for about a year that the shockwave plugin has stopped working. There is no shockwave on my computer.
I know it looks like I have two different problems as the plugin does not load, but for instance, when I got it worrking in FF28, it loaded but constantly crashed an locked up the browser with the shockwave message, even tho I never install shockwave any time
Frustration is the word for the day, or the week :-)
Thanks much
Kind regards,
John