Flash removed by non-administrator accounts

Here is a perennial problem that I have as a network administrator:
All users in my domain have no greater rights to the local computers (mostly Windows XP) than Power Users, and in many cases, only Users. This is to keep them from installing all their favorite games and wasting my time trying to remove all the junk. I keep Flash relatively current by updating it across the network periodically (perhaps twice per year or as I get notification of new versions).
However, Flash insists on notifying these non-administrators when an update is available. When the user accepts the update, it uninstalls the current version but cannot install the new version because he does not have administrative rights. Now he has no Flash. When he then attempts to access Flash content, he gets a message indicating that he needs to update his Flash, which prompts him to send me an e-mail telling me he is unable to access the site until he updates his Flash.
These are not users that are going to the Adobe website to manually update; they are just accepting the stock in-your-face update notifications. I have tested this under a non-administrative account. Sure enough, when I accept an update, it removes the current version (i.e. it is no longer listed in Add/Remove Programs) but cannot install the new one, leaving me with none until I log on administratively and install it.
This is beginning to consume more time for me because it takes extra time dealing with all the users who think they should just accept every update that comes along. I do instruct users to cancel any offered updates, but they regularly ignore my instruction because they always think it won't hurt to try.
It is as though Flash was written without any consideration for mixed-security environments. The program insists on advertising updates, allows anyone to remove the old version, but requires administrative rights to install the new one. One would think that it should require administrative rights for removal. I am guessing that there is probably a way to turn off advertisement of new versions to users; however, I suspect that is a lot of administrative overhead for one little program on many computers, and I would also guess that I would have to reset the "do not offer updates to users" after every update.
Any ideas (other than making everyone local administrators and spending all my time cleaning off all their games & other junk)?

Let me be more exact. Although the config file option is a sound management
strategy in a single-network scenario, it is not very workable with 150
individual computers across eight disparate networks owned by different
clients. I am just spending an inordinate amount of time on managing one
little application.
It would likely cost my clients more to have me proactively manage this one
application than to clean up after a few users in the cases where it is a
problem. I will report this as a bug; I just find it a little surprising
that the issue has persisted over the last several releases of Flash. I
guess I have just been expecting that someone would have reported it and
have been waiting for the behavior to change while I have been entirely
buried in larger projects.

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No matter how many times you run fsck -fy, you'll never be rid of the error.
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find / -inum 123456 -print
Note the "d" was dropped, or any extra letter that appears after the inode number.
The find will return a file name that matches with the inode number, and the path to that file. If you remove the file then the fsck will not return this error next time you run it.
However, before you can delete the file(s) in single-user mode, you'll need to mount the file system. Type:
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When done, issue the "sync" command, and that will flush the write cache so that all pending writes are written from memory to the disk. Also, since most OS X 10.3 Macs use the HFS+ Journaled file system, it might be a good idea to disable the journal before booting into single-user mode by typing:
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Chris Anderson is a long-time Linux propellerhead who just got his first Mac, an ibook G4, and can't keep his hands off of it. He currently works as a "The Architect" and general visionary for a maker of world-class collectibles.

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