Win7 updates then youtube/netflix stopped playing now program issues

I ran updates on 4/16 on both this desktop and a laptop. The laptop (Windows 7 Pro) had many more updates but is working fine. The desktop (W7 Home Premium) is having two main issues. I did not set a restore point but I wanted to ask the pros because it has been driving me nuts.

Youtube and Netflix will not play.
At first I thought it was firefox but it is in IE as well. I went through numerous steps in Firefox to try to get it work. I even tried installing the 64 bit version which did not fix it. (Currently it is uninstalled). Both players will load the video, it is buffering but only the first frames shows. If I try to skip ahead normally it locks up. If I go to you tube in IE right now, it will just freeze, possibly because I've uninstalled all flash now. But the issue before was the same, the video loads just not advance the frame. I did not do additional troubleshooting in IE as I haven't used it in years just was testing.

Next some programs will not load even though they execute. This does not coincide exactly with the updates as it started happening on the 19th.

For example, Steam will execute (from start menu) but it will not launch.
Also, my favorite game-- a short cut on the desktop-- will not launch. It will also not launch from the source on C:. It will flash a second of it's launcher and usually a screen immediately loads but it also just sits in the Processes screen. I tried launching as admin and disabling antivirus. It is like I'm being pop-up blocked. I looked at Firewall nothing seems out of place. I checked Event Logs there aren't any Update Errors or anything amiss.

Is there something else I can try?

The video is a black screen and eventually locks up this browser after spinning around.
I just reinstalled Firefox latest as I don't want to troubleshoot IE and in that browser the message is "If playback doesn't begin shortly please reset the device."

Also, not being able to access my steam and other games, can that be related to browser? Or more likely one of these security patches messed something up?

Ok after reinstalling Firefox which I think made a new profile and reinstalling flash player, videos now play.
However, it appears my external sound card may have been causing an issue also as I unplugged it to get my game to launch. Hopefully it just needed a reset otherwise I have video but no sound. But problem is otherwise fixed, can't blame updates this time I guess.