Unable to install Adobe Acrobat Reader due to newer version detected

Windows 10: 22H2 OS Build 19045.3516

Acrobat Reader install going sideways with error:

"Adobe Acrobat Reader: Newer version already installed"



This error is from installing via the installer from Adobe site.

Also via MS Store from within Windows 10, downloads Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and fails with error.

All the while with Windows Settings unable to find any reference to "Acrobat"
with all references to "Acrobat" and "Adobe" in registry removed with Auslogics Registry Cleaner.
Double checking with BCUnistaller, can't find any install of Acrobat.

I have to use Adobe Acrobat Reader to read pdfs on secure locked USB for college.
No other pdf reader will be accepted by the software on the USB.
I wish it was otherwise!

Your help in getting Adobe Acrobat installed on this machine is super appreciated.

- r

Hi Hearsepilot and Try3,
Thanks for the replies and suggestions!

Try3: there was a previous install on Acrobat I did last year, and uninstalled it and replaced with Evince.
Nup, no snapshot or image taken. My bad! Though I have started yesterday, better late than never ;-)

Hearsepilot: Thanks for the link to AdobeAcroCleaner_DC2021.exe.
I ran this a few times and each time the log files were 5-6kb.
Restarted the download from Adobe - Download Adobe Acrobat Reader
Ran the reinstall and got exactly same error, as in "Newer version already installed"
Ran the AdobeAcroCleaner_DC2021 another time and attempted install from MS Store in Win10.
Again, same result, error and no Acrobat Reader.

For good measure, I ran Austlogics Registry Cleaner, CCleaner and Wise Registry Cleaner, each found artifacts.

After some searching for the error I found there is a 3rd way to install Acrobat and this is "Adobe Acrobat Reader DC" which is
here Adobe - Download Adobe Acrobat Reader
Ironically, this is what the AdobeAcroCleaner_DC2021 is for anyway!

Installing Acrobat Reader DC had hicups with Error 1406.

Code:

"Error 1406. Could not write value DisableExceptionChain Validation to key \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ 
...\AcroRead32Info.exe. Verify that that you have sufficient access to that key, or contact you support personnel."

I chose "Ignore" and got 3 more 1406 errors: RdrCEF.exe, AcroRd32.exe, and RdServicesUpdater.exe.
Choosing "Ignore" on each error.

While the install was finishing up, I searched for "Error 1406" I found Adobe advisory recommending to edit the registry: Resolve error 1402 or error 1406 when installing Acrobat or Reader

Yikes! Editing the registry manually, changing permissions on keys and users!

A few minutes later, Acrobat DC installed and it started up, thankfully not having to edit registry.
Phew!
And importantly can now read the pdfs on the encrypted secure USB!

Thanks for the prompts, got me over the line ;-)

Hi Denis
Wow, some great tips on imaging/backing up!
And the extensive tutorials, that's going to be very useful too!

The Windows10 is a virtual machine (VM) in a Linux host.
It never occured to me to do an internal "Windows" backup, as I used the snapshot tool available in the KVM hypervisor, Virt-Manager to make a snapshot of the Windows10 VM. The snapshot is stored within the instance and rolled back via Virt-Manager gui.

So yep, a non-MS utility was used.

The Linux Host is on a SSD and is backed up using Timeshift which is a gui that automates snapshots using Rsync as its backend. The snapshots are set to run incrementally every hour for 12 hours, every day for 7 days, every week for 4 weeks, every month for 12 months.
Large datasets are stored on a pair of spinning Seagate 4TB drives as a ZFS RAID-Z1 mirror. ZFS snapshots are made via a facility called Sanoid and send to a FreeBSD server also running ZFS. This is all done using the ZFS command set and no need for extra tools for transport to the server. See more here and here on the ability of Sanoid to recover Windows VM after its been hit by ransomware. I hope to get my system to that level soon.

Rather than fight with Adobe Acrobat ... just choose another PDF reader.
Adobe Acrobat performs poorly compared to many of the freely available readers.
I use PDF-XChange Reader. It works better than anything else I've tried.
PDF-XChange Co Ltd :: PDF Creation Software, Free PDF Editor, FREE OCR, Voted Best PDF Reader!

Hi margrave55,

Agreed! Battling with Acrobat was the last thing I wanted too!
I was hoping to use another PDF reader, however the pdf on the USB memory stick refused to open with Evince and only possible with Acrobat.
Though found its possible to produce an unlocked PDF by printing to original to PDF. The PDF printer option is revealed via MS shortcut within Acrobat (win+p) which opens up the hidden option to print to PDF. Which produced a PDF that is unlocked ;-)

Also, the USB has a secure system for viewing videos. It would shut video player if it detected screen capture was running. OBS Studio would kill the video playback right away! Thought it is possible to run a screencapture in the Linux host. Which is a bit clunky, however its possible get a unlocked video with the PDF that can be then stored and indexed.
Would welcome a way to do this, and searching for a workaround.

Though this is now off topic.
If I get stuck I do another post ;-)