Thanks, Samson, for the reference to the adobe flash removal tool, which I was unaware of. I'll use it if I find that the automatic updates are still not working for Adobe Flash.
I suppose I run the malicious software removal tool (which is what I referred to as the malware removal tool) in case it does some good that has not already been done by any of my other defences - blind flying, like so much of computing, but I see no reason to assume that my other defences are 100% effective.