I know my title is a bit unclear...

If I go on a webpage that requires Flash i get the normal message.... "You need flash bla bla bla..."
I go to the adobe flash site, install it... it comes up "Flash player installed succesfully"

Go back to the site and it still says i need flash...

Hi there, I too had the same problem. The problem lies with Vista not correctly installing/registering the plugin. When you download the plugin it stores it in your temporary directory. Here you will find the msi file. If you run this manually you will find your problem will go away.

nothing in either TEMP folders when installing flash...

My solution is to run the uninstaller, then reinstall Flash.

Works like a charm. I only had issues with it "un-registering" twice, both times this fixed it.

http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html (down at the bottom).

Sorry, I meant your local setings folder in your user profile.

Worked! thanks