Can't upgrade/change/install versions of Flash Player? To ZoneAlarm users here's a fix.

Question

For the past couple of weeks now I've been plagued with the
problem of not being able to properly upgrade my flash player to
version 9. I'd get pass the installation, sure, but they'd be
corrupted installations. I can't view some flash websites and they
keep telling me to install flash player, even when I have version
9! At least that's what the computer is telling me.
After scouring all over the internet for similar problems,
I've noticed more and more correlations between these cases.
Another dilemma plagued me soon after, I realized I couldn't change
my homepage as well!
Then I read the different cases of other people and what was
striking was that they seemed to all use ZoneAlarm firewall
products. I soon find that the new OS firewall feature of the
product is the suspect.
For those ZoneAlarm firewall users (specifically with the
retail versions with the OSFirewall feature), OSFirewall might be
locking your internet settings, startup programs, host file, but
most importantly, your ActiveX files! Zone Labs included this
feature to make the product that much more hardheaded, but they
don't realize that we, the users, need these files as well.
The fix is easy. Just navigate to Program Control in
ZoneAlarm (I'm using Pro). In the Main tab, you should see "Program
Control" options. Below that, there is a "Custom" button. Click
that and navigate to the "OSFirewall" tab. Viola! There's those
turds. Left clicking on the second column of the options will give
choices of permission. If you want to make sure that this
superfluous feature doesn't mess your settings again, I suggest you
give all of them "Allow" (check marks) permissions.
NOTE: Even if you disable "Program Control" or OSFirewall,
you still need to enable OSFirewall and change the permissions.
That's because the settings of permission will still be locked to
the current ones. Basically, even if you disable OSFirewall and
have the setting "Install ActiveX" as deny, it's still in denial
permission. Check Marks all the way.
If you still experience problems, and you still feel that
ZoneAlarm is causing the problems, I suggest you go the "Programs"
tab of Program Control. There, you can view all the applications
you've ran your PC. Search "Macromedia" or "Flash" related files
and give them all acces to the internet and full permissions. If
you're not sure, Delete all of the non-Microsoft programs listed to
reset those settings. When you install Flash Player again and you
see the permission requests, just "Allow" them.
P.S. OSFirewall is not available on the free version of
ZoneAlarm. Also, to make sure that ZoneAlarm is causing the
problems, run a comprehensive spyware and anti-virus scan. Most of
the time malware causes these problems as well. Happy
Computing!

Answer 1

Check
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/885448
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/867968
[topic moved to Flash Player forum]