I can't uninstall Adobe Reader 8.1.2 so that it will let me install a newer version!

Question

When attempting to install a newer version of Adobe Reader or to uninstall the existing version, I get the error "Error applying transforms. Verify that the specified transform paths are valid".

The Adobe hotfix at http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404307.html claims I don't have Adobe Reader installed, but both Add-Remove Programs and the newer versions of Adobe Reader think that I do. If I just remove the entry in Add-Remove Programs (which I tried, then reversed), then Adobe Reader keeps working. I suppose I could just go find and delete the reader executable, but that would leave the ActiveX, shell extension, etc for me to try to manually uninstall.

How can this be fixed so that the Adobe uninstaller will run?

Answer 1

From http://forums.adobe.com/thread/392099 :

I found the fix:

I went to the registry key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\68AB67CA7DA73301B7448A2 100000030]

and deleted value of "Transforms" and was now able to do a repair/reinstall.