file extension assignment is locked up

I am trying to associate my PDF extension to Acrobat using windows explorer, the same way I have assigend extensions for years. I can not change it, the extension is locked up. This came about when I did the following. The computer had Acrobat 7 reader on it. I added Acrobat 5.0, since I do not like the bugginess of 7.0. I then de-installed 7.0 (yes, I know, should have done it de-install first, but I wanted to keep both). Now when I try to reassign the PDF extension it will not let me using the Windows explorer. Even when rightclicking on a file and reassigning the extension (including clicking the checkbox to make it apply to all) does not make the reassignment stick, although the file opens just fine in Acrobat 5. In Windows Explorer-Folder Options-FileTypes and selecting the file extension the "Delete" button is also greyed out, which is different from all others.

I described this for PDF, but I do not believe this behaviour is not limited to Acrobat. A while ago I had something similar happen for a DWG extension on someone elses computer. It was not importtant at that time, so I did not pursue. It was a similar scenario where there were two programs that could access a DWG file extension. At that time I deleted any and all references to the DWG extension I could find in the registry without any results.

OS: Windows 2000
The first time this happened it was with Windows XP Pro, with all the latest updates

Any ideas?

KP

 

To repair Acrobat or Adobe Reader:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel (Windows 2000, NT, 98) Start > Control Panel (Windows XP), and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.

2. Click Change or Remove Programs, and then click Adobe Acrobat [version number] or Adobe Reader [version number] .

3. Click Change/Remove or Change.

4. In the Setup dialog box, click Next, select Repair, and then click Next.

5. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the repair.

Steve

 

Thanks, the repair did not do it, but I did a complete removal of the Acrobat restarted, CCleaner reg cleaner and reinstalled and this solved the problem. On my other computer here I did the same for my Autocadd reader (Bentley). removal did not complete, but I followed it up with CCleaner registry clean and that solved that issue as well.

Again, thanks,

Kp

 

Glad you figured it out. Thank's for letting us know how you solved it.

Steve