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Adobe Acrobat Pro 6.0 error

ralpert
Registered: Aug 11 2008
Posts: 5

I encountered an error: 1402 and cannot seem to work around it using the information from the Knowledge Base. This happened after I uninstalled Reader 7.0. Now I'm unable to reload 6.0 or Reader.

Help!

Ron

My Product Information:
Acrobat Pro 6.0, Windows
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
Are you getting any other information on your 1402 error message? Perhaps a key listing? Do you have the ability to change permissions on keys to allow SYSTEM read and write access.

Lori Kassuba is an AUC Expert and Community Manager for AcrobatUsers.com.

ralpert
Registered: Aug 11 2008
Posts: 5
The error reads: 1402... Unknown\.pdAcroExchange.Document\ShellNew

I have made all of the recommended registry changes, used the MS Installer Cleaner, scrubbed the system using CCleaner... still get the error.

Any ideas?

thx,


R
dthanna
ExpertTeam
Registered: Sep 28 2005
Posts: 248
Wow - that is a tough one.

Time for you to become a Zen Master of Acrobat and the Registry.

Where to start... with the machine in it's most clean state - as you have it above.

Now, go through all the directories and make sure that all traces of Acrobat have been removed. Program Files is just the start. There are also locations under Docs & Settings All Users and your user ID.Next, make sure that all the PDF Maker Macros have been removed - one per Office App. Names may be slightly different - but once you find one it should give you a good hint on what to look for.

Last - Manual Registry Cleanup. General locations - HKLM and HKCU / Software/Adobe/... lots of Acrobat stuff here. Next, the Adobe PDF printer - HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Control/Print - hit both the printers and the monitors. There is also some entries under KHCU / Printers.

Last registry area - Classes - You will need to dig through .PDF, .PDX, .PS, .FDF, .XFDF, .XMP. Acrobat.exe, Distillr.exe, Acrord32.exe (double check the name), Adobe.Acro*, AdobePDF*, PDF*. There may be others - visual checking, using Find, etc. are helpful tools as well. Some of these are for Adobe related products, and some may not. Check the chain. There will be some sort of indication that it is Adobe Acrobat related.

The way to clean these up is to start with the named entry, then look for the CLSID - search on the CLSID which may point to another CLSID or the actual reference data. The thing here is you have to find the end of the chain and work backwards. If you delete just the front (root) you will have orphaned CLSIDs which more than likely will make even more headaches. Even more so as you have no way to identify and correct them!

CLSID's are stored in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/*

Be very careful here - one small slip with the delete key and you very well could kill the patient --- er.. machine which means format, and reinstall.

All in all there are over 2,000 (yes, two-thousand) entries that Acrobat makes in the registry during installation. And that's just for A6 - The number is signifigantly higher for A8/A9.

For this kind of work I seriously would recomend that you make a backup of the registry onto media easily readable from a Windows Recover Boot Disk. And test that you can read it before starting.

Estimated time: 2-3 hours or more. Plan on doing this during a quiet, uninterrupted work session.

Reboot required after final cleanup - just to make sure you have a working machine and that all memory references are removed.

Standard disclaimers regarding totally botching your machine by hand-hacking the registry apply.

Good luck! and may The Force, George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg and 20 special effects technicians be with you!

-Doug

Douglas Hanna is a member of the Production Print Technology team at Aon.
www.aonhewitt.com