

So each time I visit a new site that uses Flash, I get the message “You must install Flash”, when in fact all I need to do is tell NoScript to enable Javascript. In my case, I run the FireFox extension “NoScript” which disables Javascript on all sites, except for those that I explicitly allow. This might not be true for all sites, but it’s certainly true for the vast majority using Flash that I visit. What most sites don’t tell you is that yes, you need Flash installed, but you also need JavaScript enabled.

I’m not sure what might be the problem in your specific case, but I can tell you this: there’s at least one excruciatingly simple reason that Flash might not show up on many web sites, even though you’ve installed it. Reformatting sure seems like overkill for a problem like this. Reformatting’s a pretty major step, and not something I’d recommend without investigating things deeply.
