why doesnt my flash player 11 working? i installed it as an update to my windows 7 internet explorer

I installed this update on June 6 2013 because out of nowhere i lost my adobe player so i installed the flash player 11 and now it continues to say i have to update my adobe flash player so i cant see videos on yahoo news or anything anymore, i tried to uninstal it and instal it and both times it said i had to close my internet explorer--what the heck does that mean? i cant do that--thats what my computer is windows 7 internet explorer duh!!!! so now what do i do?