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Cannot delete Acrobat's ActiveX DLL's

Forum Index > Deployment & Installation > Cannot delete Acrobat's ActiveX DLL's
2008-05-02 09:33:52
oao
Registered: May 2 2008
Posts: 8

I uninstalled the last version of Acrobat Reader 8 from my computer (Windows 2000) via the Add/Remove in Control Panel.

A folder named Adobe was left in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe folder. It an Acrobat folder, which contains an ActiveX folder which contains two DLLs:

AcroIEHelper.dll
Acropdf.dll

It is impossible to delete the two DLLs and thus the folder, no matter what I do. None of the following worked:

1. I reinstalled Acrobat and uninstalled it.
2. I deleted all Acrobat references from the registry
3. I booted from another Windows hard disk partition.
4. I booted from a Windows bootable CD!!!
5. The regsvr32 /u command failed.

This is absolutely outrageous. Does anybody knows how to delete these files?
Are there any other files left that I should know about?

My Product Information:
Reader 8.1.2, Windows
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2008-05-02 10:01:43
#1
lkassuba
ExpertTeam
Registered: Jun 28 2007
Posts: 3636
Do you have any other version of Acrobat or Reader on your system? Here is a link with tips to manually remove Reader 8 from your system:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb400769&sliceId=1

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

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2008-05-02 10:15:34
#2
oao
Registered: May 2 2008
Posts: 8
No other version.

I will take a look but it won't help, because I already tried something very similar and it did not work.

Logging in in safe mode is not different than logging in from another installation of Windows and I already tried 2 different ones: from the hard disk and from a CD. If those did not let me delete, the chance that safe mode will let me is nil.
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2008-05-02 11:46:32
#3
oao
Registered: May 2 2008
Posts: 8
I went over the uninstall instructions and as I suspected, they did not solve the problem. neither the folders/files nor the registry items are not there. the only thing that remains is the folder with the DLLs I reported originally.

Furthermore, the instructions use the MSCONFIG utility to disable some startup programs. but since I already tried booting from another windows installations -- which do not load the same startup programs and it did not help, I don't see how this would work.
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2008-05-02 12:11:03
#4
oao
Registered: May 2 2008
Posts: 8
I solved the problem.

Turns out that even though I am Adminstrator, those two DLLs were set without permission for me to delete them. I gave myself the permission via their Security tab and was able to delete them.

I spent hours reading all the exchanges on the Net about this problem and NOBODY has ever mentioned this solution. Neither is it mentioned in the uninstall instructions by Adobe.

This is rather unacceptable. For if these files have this security setup, obviously they will not be deleted via Add/Remove, or in any other way. Therefore, all the uninstall instructions are flawed and certainly unnecessarily complex.

Adobe should not have set these files this way. As it is it should have included this solution upfront in their uninstall instructions.
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2008-05-02 13:14:05
#5
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
Maybe the OS has them open. You may need to start your system in the safe mode to be able delete the files or turnoff the services using the files.

George Kaiser

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