OK - I've determined that what was interfering with my V11 is Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended - not Adobe Reader, not Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro (regular, without the word "Extended")
Alpha Five has said they are not willing to accept "can't run with X program" and are working very very hard on a solution. I however am perfectly comfortable saying this product is a complete and utter dog that, in addition to not playing nice in the sandbox with other programs, but has apparently now corrupted my Window 7 installation. This is on a Windows 7 64 bit machine. I don't know about 32 bit or other operating systems. Perhaps anyone else who has this product can post with their operating system, 32 v 64 bit etc - and how they're doing with it.
I base this opinion on:
1 - My triple problem (lack of Web Controls, unable to use File-Open, unable to use File-New) disappeared when I uninstalled Pro Extended. It reappeared when I reinstalled. I can replicate exactly on another machine. (btw - apparently the problem lies with some basic changes it makes upon install, that are not bipassed by having MSConfig run without it, even at the most basic level, bipassing all nonessential programs and services)
2 - Pro Extended was apparently not polling for updates like it should. I set all programs to do that and always do the updates, yet it was still on version 9.0
3 - When I followed the instructions of the Adobe tech support person, which was to bring it up to the current update, attempting to do the first update crashes. It crashes on both machines. He directed me to the manual update download which I did. It requires a restart. The restart produced this errror - "Location is not available. C:\Windows\System32\Config\System Profile\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable...." and as it promised, it showed only a blank screen, no desktop. A second restart succeeded.
4 - Every restart since then is the same - first a failure to find the desktop, second restart succeeds.
5 - The Adobe tech support person said unequivocably that this means my Windows is now corrupted and needs to be repaired or reinstalled. Yippee. So - Windows is fine. I update Extended. With no other action, Windows is now corrupted. Others may disagree, but I'm laying that at the feet of Adobe. (Fortunately I only did this on one machine, my laptop, which is nearly new - it will actually be easier to reinstall than fudge around with repair).
So - even though Alpha Five is not comfortable laying blame at the feet of Adobe just yet (and I think they don't want to be just saying people "have" to uninstall an expensive program to run theirs - a wise stance), I definitely am. The first Adobe tech person said they had discontinued it "due to problems". I've seen these problems firsthand. It will not appear on any of my machines ever again.
Note - Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro (the regular one, not the Extended one) seems to run fine, does not interfere with other programs. The first update does crash just like the update for Extended. I won't know if it also causes the problem with loading the desktop until I start with a clean system and try it. Since I've had Acrobat Pro 9 version 9.0 running on another computer with no issues, I may just wimp out and skip the updates!
Adobe has told me they're willing to take my Extended back and give me a regular Pro instead - I'm doing that. I don't even want the box for Extended in my office! It's outta here.
Note that as it relates to Alpha Five, this pertains to
- the triple problem I listed above, where these issues are 100% consistent, not intermitent
- A5 V11 will run in Safe Mode
If you have problems and they are either intermitent or you also can't run in Safe Mode, this information probably won't be a cure. But, if you have Extended on, uninstalling might still help because as it stands, I would consider it a "known problem", at least for today. Tomorrow A5 might have a solution (I'm really completely floored by the effort they've putting into this issue and Dr. Gary's - they clearly don't believe in the word "can't"). That corrupting my Windows 7 part put me over the edge though. A5 can't fix that, since it's not their's to fix!
Alpha Five has said they are not willing to accept "can't run with X program" and are working very very hard on a solution. I however am perfectly comfortable saying this product is a complete and utter dog that, in addition to not playing nice in the sandbox with other programs, but has apparently now corrupted my Window 7 installation. This is on a Windows 7 64 bit machine. I don't know about 32 bit or other operating systems. Perhaps anyone else who has this product can post with their operating system, 32 v 64 bit etc - and how they're doing with it.
I base this opinion on:
1 - My triple problem (lack of Web Controls, unable to use File-Open, unable to use File-New) disappeared when I uninstalled Pro Extended. It reappeared when I reinstalled. I can replicate exactly on another machine. (btw - apparently the problem lies with some basic changes it makes upon install, that are not bipassed by having MSConfig run without it, even at the most basic level, bipassing all nonessential programs and services)
2 - Pro Extended was apparently not polling for updates like it should. I set all programs to do that and always do the updates, yet it was still on version 9.0
3 - When I followed the instructions of the Adobe tech support person, which was to bring it up to the current update, attempting to do the first update crashes. It crashes on both machines. He directed me to the manual update download which I did. It requires a restart. The restart produced this errror - "Location is not available. C:\Windows\System32\Config\System Profile\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable...." and as it promised, it showed only a blank screen, no desktop. A second restart succeeded.
4 - Every restart since then is the same - first a failure to find the desktop, second restart succeeds.
5 - The Adobe tech support person said unequivocably that this means my Windows is now corrupted and needs to be repaired or reinstalled. Yippee. So - Windows is fine. I update Extended. With no other action, Windows is now corrupted. Others may disagree, but I'm laying that at the feet of Adobe. (Fortunately I only did this on one machine, my laptop, which is nearly new - it will actually be easier to reinstall than fudge around with repair).
So - even though Alpha Five is not comfortable laying blame at the feet of Adobe just yet (and I think they don't want to be just saying people "have" to uninstall an expensive program to run theirs - a wise stance), I definitely am. The first Adobe tech person said they had discontinued it "due to problems". I've seen these problems firsthand. It will not appear on any of my machines ever again.
Note - Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro (the regular one, not the Extended one) seems to run fine, does not interfere with other programs. The first update does crash just like the update for Extended. I won't know if it also causes the problem with loading the desktop until I start with a clean system and try it. Since I've had Acrobat Pro 9 version 9.0 running on another computer with no issues, I may just wimp out and skip the updates!
Adobe has told me they're willing to take my Extended back and give me a regular Pro instead - I'm doing that. I don't even want the box for Extended in my office! It's outta here.
Note that as it relates to Alpha Five, this pertains to
- the triple problem I listed above, where these issues are 100% consistent, not intermitent
- A5 V11 will run in Safe Mode
If you have problems and they are either intermitent or you also can't run in Safe Mode, this information probably won't be a cure. But, if you have Extended on, uninstalling might still help because as it stands, I would consider it a "known problem", at least for today. Tomorrow A5 might have a solution (I'm really completely floored by the effort they've putting into this issue and Dr. Gary's - they clearly don't believe in the word "can't"). That corrupting my Windows 7 part put me over the edge though. A5 can't fix that, since it's not their's to fix!
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