Player doesnt work?

How do I open flash (swf) files that are on my desktop if the Flash Player doesnt appear in my list of programs?

I have read parts of several forums and have solved some problems but not all. I have Win XP and IE 8. After reading other forums, I unistalled then re-installed the Player and was able to see the video (and written message) confirming i had a sucessfull install the other day. I seen that the Player shows up in my Control Panel (ActX 11.3.300.271). So everything seems to be fine.

The problem is that presentations that others have created on a seperate computer using Adobe Captivate cant be viewed on my machine with the Player. The files run perfectly on machine(s) with the regular Flash program but not my Flash Player.  The files dont even have the familiar red 'f' icon when i save them to the desktop, they appear as an unrecognized format. I double click on the file and it ask me which program to use, but the Player is not an option even though it was installed. Others with Win7/IE9 said they have the same problem.

Thanks for any help you can provide.