[Farmgirl22]

OK, I am using a program called Pampered Partner on my Windows partition. For some reason it's not working together with Adobe so that I can view my revenue/expenses sheets. I've contacted tech support for Pampered Partner and all they basically could do was stammer and say they had no idea what to do.

I've downloaded the latest version of Adobe (even re-downloaded it to make sure), all the updates are installed for Pampered Partner, Parallels is up-to-date, and I am now officially OUT of ideas on what to do.

The error message I get is: _____________.pdf is not a valid WIN32 application

So I click "OK" (which is the only option) and then I get a message about how I need to download version 8.0 or higher of Adobe acrobat (which, obviously, I've already done--twice!)

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I've got to get this list off soon, because I have to turn it in for my taxes.

[dannyn]

parallels sucks..
sorry to say..
i would run it in boot camp.

[DoubleHelix]

Can you open any PDF files?
What happens when you just launch Adobe Reader 8.0 (I assume you have Reader installed and not some other Adobe product.)
Can you open these PDFs without a problem in Mac OS?

The PDF file format is universal, and it shouldn't matter what operating system or hardware you open these files on.

Since this is Windows, there's always the possibility of a corrupt Adobe installation, a Windows system problem, spyware, etc. Unless dannyn has some particular experience with Parallels, Macs, and PDFs not all playing well together, I doubt that's the problem.

[dannyn]

no i dont..
i guess it was just a side comment.. Parallels has just made me very very frustrated so i couldn't resist..
parallels is not your problem..at least with this issue...
but like double helix said.. can you open any pdfs... or is it just those that you cant open.

[Farmgirl22]

I think I might have made a bit of a breakthrough on my problem--hopefully it's enough for you guys to help me out.

When I download PDF's to my desktop (that way they don't use the built-in browser reader by default) and I open them they automatically open with version 8.1.2 or whatever the brand spanking new one is....HOWEVER.....when I right click on the file and go to "open with", I get TWO options of Adobe--the version 8.0 (which has a funky icon next to it), and the version 8.1.2 (which has the red Adobe symbol next to it). The 8.0 version gives me the same error message I was getting earlier, while the other one opens the file without a hitch.

I've went to Add/remove programs, and there is only one version of Adobe there--same goes for searching through the explorer. If I can't find the older version of Adobe, how can I get rid of it? And why didn't that version get erased when Adobe was installing, since it said as part of the installation "removing older versions"....????

So anyway, for some reason my Pampered Partner program is trying to use the older version instead of the newer one, and I'm definitely going to have to get rid of that older version. I'm thinking--full removal and reinstall of Adobe, will that work?

[DoubleHelix]

You could try removing and reinstalling Adobe Reader. Adobe actually has pretty thorough support information for their products on their website. You could look around there for clean install instructions or something similar.

You could also try associating PDFs with the version of Adobe Reader that works. Right-click, Open With, select the program, and check the box to always use that program.

[dannyn]

glad to hear it..
that is what i would do is get all the adobe out completely and then reinstall it.. but its up to you..
one thing that i would be a little hesitant about is if you cant see it in add/ remove programs you may have a hard time getting the program to recognize that the old version is gone and now it needs to switch to the new version instead of trying to still use to old version.

[Farmgirl22]

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

You could try removing and reinstalling Adobe Reader. Adobe actually has pretty thorough support information for their products on their website. You could look around there for clean install instructions or something similar.

You could also try associating PDFs with the version of Adobe Reader that works. Right-click, Open With, select the program, and check the box to always use that program.

HOLY CRAP!! It worked!!! YAY!!!! THANK YOU!!! Awesome! I have to ask though....do you ever have those moments where you think--huh, why didn't I think of that??? I mean, you posted that file association thing, and I'd been fighting this thing all week and hadn't managed to think of that...

Originally Posted by dannyn

glad to hear it..
that is what i would do is get all the adobe out completely and then reinstall it.. but its up to you..
one thing that i would be a little hesitant about is if you cant see it in add/ remove programs you may have a hard time getting the program to recognize that the old version is gone and now it needs to switch to the new version instead of trying to still use to old version.

Yeah, I'd still like to remove that old icon thing, but hopefully it won't try to revert back to it on me. I'd even taken a screen shot of it to prove that I wasn't crazy--really don't need to post it now though, unless it would give you guys an idea of where this file might be (based on the funky icon), but I'm guessing that's probably a bit of a stretch of my imagination. I've a pretty good imagination sometimes...

[dannyn]

glad to see he could help you..
can you take a screen shot..
you have me curios now..
haha

[Farmgirl22]

Well, here it is--I had taken this before I followed DHelix's advice.

[dannyn]

oo ive seen that before..
i know that it means that something is wrong..
i dont know the exact definition though.
glad to see he could help you!

[DoubleHelix]

You might try editing this registry key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileEx ts\.pdf\OpenWithList

Look for something related to Adobe on the right side. Hopefully it's clear which is the good entry and which is the bad. Otherwise list the info here, and we'll help.

[Farmgirl22]

I don't know for sure how to access the registry keys to edit them. How do I do it?

[DoubleHelix]

Start -> Run. Type:
regedit
Hit Enter.

[Farmgirl22]

OK, here's what I got....it didn't stand out for me, so maybe it will for you.