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Adobe 9.4 won't install, spurious error 1303

cogsci999
Registered: Oct 31 2010
Posts: 3

I received numerous messages urging me to upgrade to 9.4. Finally agreeing proved to be a major disaster that has wasted my entire day. The combined download and install removed version 9.3 but then failed the 9.4 installation, leaving me unable to read Acrobat documents, including my user manual!
I made numerous unsuccessful tries, including one in which I disabled my security software.
Eventually I discovered that my user account does have administrator privileges so I do not understand what is going on. I have never had to get into any of this before. It seems to me that Adobe is just messing a lot of people up with this so-called upgrade it is pushing. Perhaps hoping to collect $39 from each of them for help. My computer is my private machine, not part of any network. There is no network administrator.
I am now thoroughly disgusted.

cogsci999

My Product Information:
Reader, Windows
Dimitri
Expert
Registered: Nov 1 2005
Posts: 1389
Hi cogsci999,

First, sorry to hear how frustrating your day has been. What operating system are you using? The requirement for administrative privileges is an operating system issue, not Adobe's or the Acrobat application. Newer Windows operating systems have gotten more and more picky for security reasons, and an Administraotr Account can be on a single computer, not just those on a network.

That said, I am not sure why you are having this issue with 9.4 specifically, if earlier updates (to 9.3 for example) worked for you.

Here is a Knowledge base article on the 1303 error message and several ways to resolve it. It is based on earlier versions of Acrobat, not 9.4 but maybe those steps will still apply.

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/329/329117.php

And here is a link to a Microsoft article on the 1303 error message-
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/228658


Dimitri
cogsci999
Registered: Oct 31 2010
Posts: 3
I appreciate the effort to help me. However, I am running Windows XP and prior upgrades to Acrobat have not caused any difficulty, up to version 9.3. Once I finally got to the right place to examine the question, I am set up as having administrator rights. Much of the advice given in various places is made irrelevant because there is never an opportunity to interact with an installer because the download for 9.4 combines download and installation seamlessly until it fails. And, anyway, I am already logged on as an administrator.
I find this quite mysterious and I think it really must be Adobe that is to blame. One of the things that I tried to at least regain the ability to read documents was to download an earlier version, 8.2. This also failed in the same way.
In my initial effort to download 9.4, the installer unfortunately got as far as removing 9.3, thus leaving me without the ability to read pdf documents.

cogsci999

UVSAR
Expert
Registered: Oct 29 2008
Posts: 1357
To clarify - are we talking about Adobe Reader (the free app) or Adobe Acrobat?

If it's Acrobat, then you can always install Adobe Reader as well - that will give you the ability to read PDFs even if the Acrobat installer fails.
Dimitri
Expert
Registered: Nov 1 2005
Posts: 1389
Hi cogsci999,

I haven't experienced this myself, but have read reports that running CCCleaner (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/features) to remove odd bits in your registry has helped a lot of people with installation issues.

Hope this helps,

Dimitri
cogsci999
Registered: Oct 31 2010
Posts: 3
Sorry. I am in fact talking about the free reader. I guess it was too late at night.

cogsci999

FarrukhBilal
Registered: Nov 17 2011
Posts: 1
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