Flash player windows 8 and LeapFrog Connect

I've got windows 8, and with it internet explorer automatically has flash, well I try to run Leapfrog Connect and it constantly tells me I need to download flash player.  I've got the plug in that's required for mozilla to run flash and it still won't run Leapfrog Connect.  Each time I open it it tells me that i need to install or update flash player.  I've followed the hints on both the forum (that I could find) the flash website for flash player and internet explorer and from LeapFrog the company.  Each thing I've tried (even downloading for other browsers) has not worked, and LeapFrog Connect STILL won't work.  My kids birthday is in a few weeks, and I can't personalize her toy if I can't get this to work.  LeapFrog hasn't been much help, all they've done is tell me to try things I've already tried.  Has anyone else experienced something similar?  My friend has windows 7 and it works for her, but she also has the active x control, when I tried to download that (since my computer doesn't have it showing under installed files) it won't let me because internet explorer automatically has flash installed.  This is getting really frustrating as no one seems to know what's going on.