I should know better than to unnecessarily upgrade software, but I lost my mind and did Adobe's v8.01 upgrade for Acrobat. I was hoping that the two-page bug would be fixed. If you open a document in single-page display mode, then switch to two-page display, Acrobat 8 doesn't display facing pages (even-odd) but odd-even-numbered pages. I had reported the bug during beta, but it wasn't fixed in the shipping version.
The installer downloaded the upgrade code, and then prompted me for the CD. CD? Why would a CD be needed for an online upgrade? So i clicked Cancel, because i was too lazy to dig up the CD.
Big mistake. Next time I opened PageMaker (another Adobe product), it complained it couldn't find the Acrobat PDF printer driver. I looked at Windows' list of printers, and sure enough: it was GONE!
So the aborted Acrobat upgrade killed the PDF driver that I need on a near-daily basis. Swell, Adobe.
Udpate
I need that PDF printer driver, so I got out the box and inserted the Acrobat 8 Professional CD, and then selected the option to Repair the install. After copying some files from the CD, a dialog box appears on the screen, instructing me to...
... insert the Acrobat 8 Professional CD and press Enter after having done so. Since the correct CD was in the drive, and not having any other choice, I stopped the installation. Swell, Adobe.
The software uninstalled itself, and this time I tried Modify. After a suspiciously short time, the software announced Acrobat 8 Pro was installed.
I was correct to be suspicious. Checking the Printers listing in Control Panel, there was no PDF printer driver, even though I had specified it should be installed.
Well, go whole hog, I s'pose. I uninstalled Acrobat 8 Pro and then re-installed it. The dialog box taunted me with its "this may take a few minutes" dialog box, with the procedure taking nearly a half-hour.
Then, another unpleasant sight: a dialog box informing me that I need to Deactivate Acrobat 8 if I intended to install it on another computer. No, Stupid, I am reinstalling it on the same computer. I tentatively clicked Skip Deactivation in the hopes of pacifying the crazies behind this failed upgrade.
No such luck. The software began to uninstall itself. And then the greatest of insults: it insisting my computer needed to be rebooted. Shut down all the software and files I have open?
Instead of no PDF driver only, I now have no Acrobat Reader for viewing PDFs, and no Distiller for creating PDF ebooks that I rely on for my income.
I gave in, and rebooted. Windows Explorer goofed up, hogging 99% of CPU resources. After 30 minutes to trying to solve that one, I rebooted again. Reinstalled Acrobat Pro 8, which took another 20 minutes. Got it all working again. Spent half a Saturday afternoon on it.
A dreadful waste of my time that should never have occurred.
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