The good news is that I was able to install Adobe Reader 8.1 using the
previous file that I had downloaded, as described in the 1st paragraph
of my previous posting. Also, the problem that I encountered in the
previous Adobe Reader 8.0, which then compelled me to "uninstall"
(Adobe style) Adobe Reader 8.0 and revert back to installing and
using Adobe Reader 7.09, has been fixed in Adobe Reader 8.1.
I am not certain whether Adobe thinks that anyone should be able to
simply download a fresh copy of the AdbeRdr810_en_US.exe
installation file for installing Adobe Reader 8.1 from Adobe's web site
after having installed Adobe Reader 8.1. However, I definitely still
cannot do this. I ultimately end of with the same download problem
that I encountered before. However, with both IE 6 and Mozilla
Firefox, I had to attempt to download this file twice before I
encountered the same situation as before. The first time that I
attempted to do this, I encountered various undefined "installation"
errors that I did not previously encounter. I guess this is the Adobe
version of "improvement" using Adobe Reader 8.1.
This time I watched things more closely, and discovered that the first
time that IE6 attempts to download Adobe Reader 8.1 directly from
Adobe's web site, it attempts to install "getPlus(R)_ocx". Conversely,
the first time that Mozilla Firefox attempts to download Adobe Reader
8.1 directly from Adobe's web site, it attempts to install "getPlus(R)_dll".
Apparently, these actually get installed to where they can be used on
the 2nd attempt after undefined "installation" errors on the first attempt.
Also, before I installed Adobe Reader 8.1, both IE 6 and Mozilla
Firefox asked me if I wanted to download the Google Tool Bar when
I made futile attempts to download the AdbeRdr810_en_US.exe
installation file for installing Adobe Reader 8.1 directly from Adobe's
web site. After installing Adobe Reader 8.1, IE 6 still functions in the
same manner, but Mozilla Firefox now bypasses the web page that
asks whether I want to also download the Google Tool Bar.
As I stated above, I guess this is the Adobe version of "improvement".
However, this is hardly my idea of "improvement". My version of
improvement is for Adobe to totally get rid of their dysfunctional
"getPlus(R)" Download Manager that definitely does not work, and
allow users to download the Adobe Reader in a normal manner that
actually does work. This includes being able to use any other
Download Manager that any user chooses to use for downloading the
AdbeRdr810_en_US.exe installation file for installing Adobe Reader
8.1 from Adobe's web site. This would be real improvement.
Richard A. Landkamer
Allan:
I tried a somewhat different approach: First, I used my Download
Manager to directly download Adobe Reader 8.1 at
<
http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/8.x/8.1/enu/AdbeRdr810_en_US.exe>,
since this direct download URL was provided in one of the other
postings to this issue.
Then I uninstalled Adobe Reader 7.09 using Add/Remove Programs,
restart Windows XP. After doing this, I decided to do an experiment:
I decided to try and download Adobe Reader 8.1 directly from the
Adobe web site for the sole purpose of determining whether uninstalling
Adobe Reader 7.09 had fixed my original download problem. I still
had the original problem. Every time that I attempt to download Adobe
Reader 8.1 directly from the Adobe web site, I am always forced into
the "Adobe Download Manager powered by getPlus(R)" window that
I attempted to include as an attachment to this issue, but was prevented
from doing this. Sometimes I first get a pop-up window with the
statement: "In order to use a proxy, please enter the following data and
ensure that you are connected to the Internet." I can then insert an
Address and a Port, and then click on "OK" or "No proxy." When I
click on "No proxy." I then get what is in the above attachment.
In addition, "getPlus(R)_dll" and "getPlus(R)_ocx" are always added
to what is in my list of "Add or Remove Programs". If I uninstall these
two "getPlus(R)" entries, they are reinstalled the next time.
From my experiences of "uninstalling" prior versions of Adobe Reader,
I have learned that "uninstalling" Adobe Reader always leaves behind a
big mess to clean up. This time was no exception. Among the Adobe
Reader files containing data that I deleted manually were the following:
C:\Documents and Settings\Richard A. Landkamer\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\7.0\Updater
- 514 KB (526,856 bytes)
C:\Documents and Settings\Richard A. Landkamer\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe
- .20 MB (7,556,559 bytes)
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Setup Files
- 13.9 MB (14,584,320 bytes)
I also ran StompSoft Registry Cleaner, which deleted several invalid
Windows XP Registry references to Adobe Reader files that no longer
exist.
One other point: The Windows Installer Clean Up utility contains no
entries related to any version of Adobe Reader, Adobe Updater, or
Adobe Download Manager, etc.
After doing the above clean up, I again attempted to download Adobe
Reader 8.1 directly from Adobe's web site with both IE6 and Mozilla
Firefox. My above clean up efforts had no effect. I got the same
results as before.
There is one other piece of information that might be relevant to this
problem: When Adobe Reader 8.0 was originally released, I down-
loaded and installed this product and took it for a "test drive." I soon
encountered what I believe is this problem:
"1405636 After form data import ,the content of the rich text field
entered on the first page was not being displayed on 2nd and 3rd
page, but the fields on the 2nd and 3rd page were bound to the
same data element." This is included in the list of problems that are
supposed to be fixed in the list of "issues addressed in the Adobe
Reader 8.1 Update" on the web page at
<
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb401732&sliceId=2>.
I discovered that I could not scroll through pages with any embedded
objects, which caused a thoroughly garbled display in Adobe Reader
8.0. So when I discovered that Adobe Reader 8.0 really was a beta
test version of Adobe Reader that I could not functionally use for all
of my work, I uninstalled Adobe Reader 8.0, and then reinstalled
Adobe Reader 7.09.
The bottom line is that I did previously briefly install Adobe Reader 8.0,
which I had to back off and revert back to using Adobe Reader 7.09.
Hence, my present download problem might possibly be related to
residue left in my Windows XP Registry from my previous installation
of Adobe Reader 8.0, rather than Adobe Reader 7.09. At this point,
I suspect that this problem is caused by something that should have
been deleted from my Windows XP Registry when either Adobe
Reader 8.0 or Adobe Reader 7.09 was previously "uninstalled", but
was not deleted.
What I have not done at this point is try to "hack" through the Windows
XP Registry, and manually delete all references that I find to any version
of Adobe Reader, etc. I suppose if I did this, then I might be able to fix
this problem. But then I might also delete something that should not be
deleted, and cause other problems, so I am not going to do this.
Since I was able to download Adobe Reader 8.1 with the approach
described in the first paragraph of this posting, I intend to move on and
try to install Adobe Reader 8.1. I feel confident that others will eventually
encounter this same problem. At least I have documented what I
attempted to do to fix this problem that did not work, along with my
previous history of Adobe Reader installations that might have caused
this download problem.
Richard A. Landkamer
