The adobe flash player seems to keep randomly crashing my browser, if I leave it open and the computer unattended. I have previously fixed this problem by installing the flash player, and now the same issue has come up again. Just wondering how many more times I have to keep installing flash player to keep IE7 from crashing. The error displayed is with the flash9d.ocx file. This file is doing something that in turn causes IE to crash.

Most crash of IE are cause by Addons conflict. Your problem is probably not cause by flash player but another addon conflict with flash player.
So the first step to solve your problem is to disable all you addons. To do this, open "tools" - "internet options" - "manage addons", then disable all enabled addons.
If crash never happen again, then enable addons one by one to find which addon conflict with flash player.