flash player problems.

Hello everyone 1st time user, Thank you for taking time to read my Question.
I am using windows xp Pro sp/2 I can not get flash player to work on my computer. I have done all the possible options given in the adobe troubleshooting site but images will not appear. The player itself is shown to be installed but I cannot get a video no matter what I do. I am using Internet Explorer 6 and cannot upgrade to 7 because it seems I do not have a genuine copy of xp. The microsoft people say it is because it was installed by a distributer and I do not have the correct numbers to give them because the hard drive came from another computer than the one it is in so the casing does not have any numbers for it, If that makes sense to anybody. If someone has an option other than me having to pay another $150 for another genuine copy from microsoft(who I feel is making enough off of everything they sell the first time anyways)(and I would have to reinstall everything) I would be so very indebted. Thank you for you time and have a great day.

williamdl