trying to play you tube videos

I

have gone to you tube to watch videos and it says i have java turned off or need to download flashplayer. so i loaded flash player and it still does not

play any videos. i looked for flashplayer in my program list and can not find it. and when i try to redownload it says i already doenloaded flash player do i want to redown load. im not sure why i cant find flashplayer in my program list? or why you tube will not work?