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All Desktop Icons are Adobe Reader

Forum Index > General Acrobat Topics > All Desktop Icons are Adobe Reader
2010-01-18 20:21:19
boweasel
Registered: Jan 18 2010
Posts: 3

A friend had me look at her Vista PC because of the 20 icons on her desktop, 16 of them had the familiar Adobe Reader icon, instead of their normal icons. Whenever one of those icons would be selected we would get a message that Adobe reader could not open the file. And it wasn't just desktop icons - almost anything we selected brought up that message - Interner Explorer, msconfig, Windows Explorer, System Restore, MS Word, AVG to name a few of the many. I even went to Start/Run and entered '%SystemRoot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe', and got the same result.

Task manager DID work, and every time we would get one of those messages, we could see that Acrord32.exe was running. We could kill that process, but it would just pop up next time we tried to open almost anything.

I ultimately uninstalled all Adobe products from her PC, and everything went back to working normally. However, she's a school teacher and need Adobe reader for her job, so the next day I went back to her place, went to Adobe's site and downloaded the newest version of Adobe Reader.

All her icons reverted back to the Adobe Reader picture and we, once again, could not open anything. So I again uninstalled the reader, saw that the icons were correct, and that everyhing worked as it should.

How do I fix this so she can have Adobe Reader back on her PC?

My Product Information:
Reader 9.2, Windows
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2010-01-20 10:27:24
#1
Lancelot
Registered: Jan 19 2010
Posts: 4
Since you are on PC, first run virus scanner and make sure the computer is not infected. Secondly, this can actually be a simple solution if virus is not at fault.

1) Install Reader again
2) By now, you should see all Reader file icons again as well
3) Select a file you know that should open with a known application on her workstation > right-click to bring up the sub-menu > select Open With > check "always open with..." option and pick the correct applicationYou are basically re-associating file with an application this way. If you pick the wrong program, just try again and pick a different one.

Hope this helps.
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2010-01-21 00:16:32
#2
boweasel
Registered: Jan 18 2010
Posts: 3
While I appreciate your efforts, take note that all of the applications that I could not open on her PC were .EXE files. There's no option to use 'open with' on an executable file.

And, once Adobe Reader was uninstalled, I ran through a full scan with Malwarebytes, and performed a chkdsk /r that initiated on her next boot. Reinstalling AR once again, after those applications completed, made all the .exe's non-functional, and returned the dreaded AR icons to her desktop.
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2011-01-17 17:43:40
#3
Drake411
Registered: Jan 17 2011
Posts: 2
Beautifully written description of the problem I am having. Can't simply tell Windows to use a specific program to open said mis-associated files because who knows what opens .exe files?

If you go into the file associate window one has the same problem. What program should open .LNK files? The associate window lists it as "unknown" before installation and adobe after. This is probably the main problem that aliases with the suffix .LNK have been made associated with adobe.

Now how do we fix that?

Should I also point out that it only affects one user on this computer?

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2011-01-17 18:16:31
#4
gkaiseril
Expert
Registered: Feb 23 2006
Posts: 4307
You may have to click on each icon (they should be shortcuts) and change the Icon.

I would also run a full virus scan not just malware. Of course the virus could have destroyed the exe files.

George Kaiser

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2011-01-17 23:10:16
#5
Drake411
Registered: Jan 17 2011
Posts: 2
Thank for the speedy response George. To me it was corrupt user profile. I could make a new user account and install the reader fine. So I just followed Microsoft's instructions on corrupt user profile. Sadly it takes forever to copy over the files from one account to another and transferring the email programs' stuff is a separate and difficult journey.

As far as I can tell your on the same page as Lancelot. Individually reseting the files. It is global so it would be speeder to change all the associations for "shortcuts" aka "alias" aka .LNK or "link" files. I think your onto something though because the proposed fixes on the Adobe site includes one that says "change it to any other program and reboot.
I'm sorry if I wasted anyone's time. I looked and looked for a solution from Adobe. Strangely when I got home and searched with my Mac this one popped right up:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/860/cpsid_86069.php

Entitled :
Icons of all applications/file-types change to Acrobat/Reader icon.Products affected
Installing Acrobat/Reader corrupts file Association.

The first solution is to download a .reg file to merge with your registry data. If that fails "Force a refresh of the icon cache" their lingo for basically lancelot and your idea. Then there is deleting IconCache.db and rebooting and or running EXPLORER.EXE.
Doing this may be easier than completing my mail back-up and resurrection.
I hope boweasel and all who find this topic use the above link because it seems lots of crooks are selling expensive fixes for this problem capitalizing on everyones fear of viruses. I already have Norton and McAffie not another penny from me.
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