64 bit Vista

When I bought my machine with 64 bit vista it came with both 32 and 64 bit versions of IE7 installed.  Flash only worked on the 32 bit version but that was ok.

When IE7 got too far out of date to work at some sites I upgraded to IE8 for the 64 bit version.  Without asking it also replaced the 32 bit version.  I then noticed Flash worked fine on both.  All went well until a couple of months ago when I started getting messages to upgrade to the new Flash player.  I put it off for a while because I'm a strong believer in "If it isn't broke don't fix it!"  When I finally gave in and installed the update I lost my ability to play Flash on my system.  I tried a system restore but there was no going back.

I see that the new version doesn't work with 64 bit vista, but I had something that was working and I would like it back.  There have got to be a million 64 bit vista machines out here and I can't believe we are just being written off.  There is no reason I should have to upgrade to windows 7 just to get something back that I had before.  Please help.