I just checked my flash player version and it says 10.0.32.18. I checked for an update and the download section of their site lists 10.0.42.34 as being available. I ran the installer (after unchecking the mcafee box) and I still am coming up with the same lower version of flash. I am running win 7 and firefox. I have restarted firefox, uninstalled flash, and tried downloading a couple times. Odd.

Flash usually updates on its own. I don't know if you can force it.

That is what confused me. If Flash updates on its own and that was working correctly then why wasn't my version the same as the one available for download? When trying to manually download there was a page suggesting uninstalling before downloading and reinstalling.

Poking around a bit more I discovered that you have to run the Flash Player Uninstaller program available for download on their site, restart your computer and then install flash.

I am now running the latest version.