In response to your questions:
1. Yes, Adobe Flash 11
2. I use Chrome 26 or Firefox 20. Don't use IE. Currently, System Manager is configured to use Firefox. Version 2.0.2 works just fine on both.
3. JRE 7 (have tried update 7, update 11 and update 21)
4. Yes, this is enabled on all the filers I work with, though I'm not sure how this would affect system manager not starting up on my PC??
5. No, I did not manually specify the port. It's set to pick on automatically. I did try setting it manually while troubleshooting, but still got the error.
6. Yes, it's set to "run as administrator", though even if unchecked, I still get the error.
Additionally,
I've tried running in compatibility mode (Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2) but still no joy.
Any other pointers?