Filetonic / Adobe Reader 8 did not uninstall properly and I get a message about not finding ‘acroread.msi’. Now if in spite of this I try to reinstall AR 8 again, this also fails with the message ‘Setup has detected that you already have a more functional product installed’, and closes down. Between a rock and a hard place! Can you advise?

Adobe Reader 8 did not uninstall properly and I get a message about not finding ‘acroread.msi’. Now if in spite of this I try to reinstall AR 8 again, this also fails with the message ‘Setup has detected that you already have a more functional product installed’, and closes down. Between a rock and a hard place! Can you advise?

Kat Delong Acroread.msi is the installation file for Adobe Reader, and it looks like that file is either missing or corrupted. You’re right, the Adobe Reader didn’t install properly, and now you can’t remove it the regular way because the cached msi in C:\Windows\Installer is corrupted. Any attempt to download the new version (which is Adobe Reader 9) will see that you have some of the Adobe files already on your computer.

You need to use the program that Microsoft has developed for just this situation. The

Microsoft Windows Installer Cleanup Utility is perfect for partially installed programs that use the Windows Installer. It doesn’t remove the actual program, but it does remove the installation files so that you can download a new version of Adobe Reader.

Click on the link above to go to the Microsoft website. Once you scroll down and click on the Cleanup Utility, you will see a security warning. Click Run. Once the Cleanup has been downloaded, go to Start and then Programs on your computer. Look for the Windows Install Cleanup and open it. Look for the Adobe Reader file in that window. Click on it to select. Make sure that you have ONLY selected the Adobe Reader files you want to delete. Choose Remove.

After Adobe Reader has been removed, you can check in Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. See if the Adobe Reader is gone.

Once you’ve removed the installed program, go to the Adobe website and download Adobe Reader 9 by clicking on the link. Now that you’ve uninstalled the corrupted version completely, you should have no trouble downloading the new version.