Flash Player Not Working after many reinstalls, reboots, et cetera.

Hey everyone.

Here's the required info as per the guidelines before I get too into the background of the problem:

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (SP 1)

Web Browser: Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.17633   (Please note this is not typically my default browser. I usually use Chrome, and Firefox is somewhere on the machine).

Flash Version: 16.0.0.305  (Although this also happens with the beta 17 version).

I tried to get help with this on the skype forums as this was primarily a skype-centric problem at first, but it has quickly turned into a problem with my flash player on internet explorer. Skype apparently relies on IE and specifically IE's flash player, which I cannot recall using ever on this machine. Any website visited in IE that has flash content somewhere on the page will freeze with either a blank white screen, perpetually load with only one or two non-flash elements on the page (such as a big black bar at the top on the adobe flash help page: Flash Player Help.)

The ultimate goal of this troubleshooting is to get IE's flash working again so that Skype will begin working again.

I have uninstalled, reinstalled, and rebooted countless times. I uninstalled IE and reinstalled it from the ground up, I have done so many things to try and diagnose this problem, but I just can't understand what it is. My flash works fine in Chrome, which is separate from IE due to the flash player in IE needing ActiveX, from what I understand.

I can provide any additional information on request, and I will also link to the skype support thread so as to not require you to go through another troubleshooting step that they didn't already have me go through: Skype Fails to Send Messages, Update Status, Numer... - Skype Community

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.