Wow!!! That was a different downloader to the one I have found a dozen times. It worked first shot. Thank you very much for the link Dave.
I realised it wasn't actually an Opera issue but couldn't find any helpful help from Adobe.

Thanks again
Rosco

Hi. I have
Opera 22.0

Version information

Version: 22.0.1471.70 - Opera is up to date
Update stream: Stable
System: Windows XP 32-bit

Its been running nicely for some time now. Just recently a site I visit daily said I needed to update Adobe Flash. It had a link, which I didn't use. I went to Adobe's site and downloaded Flash. I then followed the instructions:
To proceed, open your download folder and locate the Adobe Flash Player Installer file, named like "install_flashplayer[xxx].exe”.
Double-click on the installer to complete the installation. For additional help, click here.

The installer downloads for 30 - 40 seconds and then brings up the message "Failed to launch application" All I can do then is click 'finish' which closes the window. I have made several attempts on many occasions but always get the same result.
I read somewhere that I may need to delete the old flash, so that is gone but I still can't load the new one. :(.
Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Rosco.