Install Acrobat changes .lnk association?

[drilldr]

I inadvertantly clicked (to always) on associating to open my .lnk file types with Acrobat pro. When this happened I was unable to control my computer as everything I clicked on would attempt to open acrobat. I couldn't do any of the fixes to restore my defaults as almost all program files were assoc. with Acrobat. So I uninstalled acrobat and I have corrected this probelm by re-setting the proper file associations to their default value for the .lnk file types. My computer works fine with out Acrobat on it.

Here is my problem. I would really like to have Acrobat pro, but everytime I have tried to install it I come up with the same file association problem that started this whole mess. All of the .lnk files are associated with Acrobat and the cycle repeats itself until i uninstall Acrobat! It's my guess that it's a registry problem. I have some experience using regedit but this one is hard to figure out. One thought is backup registry then edit out any mention of Acrobat? Help please. Thank you!

 

[zigzag3143]

I inadvertantly clicked (to always) on associating to open my .lnk file types with Acrobat pro. When this happened I was unable to control my computer as everything I clicked on would attempt to open acrobat. So I uninstalled acrobat and I have corrected this probelm by re-setting the proper file associations to their default value for the .lnk file types. My computer works fine with out Acrobat on it.

Here is my problem. I would really like to have Acrobat pro, but everytime I install it I come up with the same file association problem that started this whole mess. All of the .lnk files are associated with Acrobat and the cycle repeats itself until i uninstall Acrobat! It's my guess that it's a registry problem. I have some experience using regedit but this one is hard to figure out. One thought is backup registry then edit out any mention of Acrobat? Help please. Thank you!

Why would you want to associate a shortcut (.lnk) file with acrobat???? There are hundreds of links to apps that you dont want o associate with acrobat. Please explain??

 

[Brink]

Hello DrillDr, and welcome to Seven Forums.

The lnk download in the tutorial below will restore all of it's default associations for you and hopefully fix this for you.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[drilldr]

Hi Shawn (BTW that's my name too), I've read your posts helping others with this but my problem is different I believe. It's no problem to re-associate the .lnk file type to the default settings using your helpful link and walkthru. I can do that only after I uninstall Acrobat! My problem is that if I re-install Acrobat Pro somehow during it's installation the wrongfull file association reoccurs and then all executable files are linked to it again! Then I am unable to use the restore methodology to fix the .lnk assoc. Just about every icon that starts up a program when clicked on triggers Acrobat. I can't use regedit ... nothing. Something is changed during the install of Acrobat. It so frustrating!!!

 

[Brink]

Siince it's the executable files themselves that are doing this instead of the shortcuts (lnk), then you might see if using the EXE download at the link above may work for you instead.

 

[Bill2]

Try this utility to unassociate file types. Make sure you create a system restore point and a registry backup before trying anything.

An Utility to Unassociate File Types in Windows 7 and Vista