I recently installed Windows XP 64 bit on my laptop, all the windows patches were applied via WSUS automatically and I installed all the programs I use including Flash 8.
While loading Flash 8 I would get the following error:
Faulting application flash.exe, version 8.0.0.478, faulting module shell32.dll, version 6.0.3790.2662, fault address 0x0015af84.
I couldn't find any information about this error via google or adobe/macromedia.
The problem turns out to be the microsoft security patch MS06-015 (KB908531). This patch breaks Quicktime 7.1 but it also breaks Flash 8.
Uninstalling this patch allows Flash to work, either microsoft needs to revise this patch or the appropriate vendors needs to issue a patch.