Adobe Reader 9 won't install

James: Thank you so much for all your help. I have now downloaded Reader 8 from oldapps.com and have bookmarked it for possible further use. I think I shall steer well clear of Reader 9 for quite some time. I should have learnt my lesson when I downloaded a Beta version of IE7 and everything went belly up. The problem with http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html was that although I was offered Reader 8, it actually defaulted to Reader 9 and thus caused the same old problem of 99.9% to occur. Thanks again, I am eternally grateful.

Kay Leppard--In the course of fiddling some more (even though I now have Reader 9 installed per my post #84) I tried the NOSSO download again. I have no idea whether this caused the change I now mention.
The installation files I reported earlier as being in C:\Documentsandsettings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Setup Files are no longer there! "Setup Files" is now an empty folder!
However, I now find everything in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Setup Files\{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A90000000001} .
This is really getting weird. Did I move them there? I doubt it, since I would not have known about {AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A90000000001} .
Anyway this gives you another place to look.
I am not sure why you did not find setup.exe in your Searches. You really do not need to use Search. Just navigate within the C:\ directory.
I also do not know what the problem is when you went to http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html
I am offered Reader 8, though I did not pursue going through the steps of downloading. In any event you should be able to get Reader 8 here http://www.oldapps.com/acrobat_reader.htm

Thanks James. I did System Restore and the strange thing was that at the end it gave me a list of files that it had re-names. The were all Reader 9 files which had been renamed: Reader 9 (2); Air (2); SetupFiles (2)and told me they had been saved to C:\Documentsandsettings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Setup Files. I would not find this in Windows Explorer so did a Search using Windows Desktop Search which couldn't find it! So, where they have been saved I have no idea. I also tried to get the 8.1.2 update from Reader Help and was making progress but at the final click it defaults to the Reader 9 download. I also tried the link you suggesed but that appears to be for Acrobat which I don't have. I won't give up without a fight and will try my husband's laptop with has Vista to see if he has a Reader downloaded. I don't want to download 9 on that as I gather that has its own problems with Vista!

Kay Leppard--System Restore should work. Remember to use Reader Help to get the 8.1.2 update. If you have problems with System Restore you can download installation files for old versions here http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2_allversions.html

Thanks Ronald, Ole & James. I have tried all suggestions but still no luck. I have also tried downloading to my external hard drive. As a last resort I shall now try System Restore to get back to my earlier version.

Kay Leppard--See my Post #84 for one approach. It turns out NOSSO was downloading the installation files (at least it was in my case) but since it gave no indication where, I only found them by accident. Instructions for manual installation from those files are given in my post.
But now also see Ole Lee's posts 89 and 93 for another approach. And I guess you have seen the suggestions in posts 46 and 57.
P.S. My use of any of the approaches other than that in post 84 only opened the Epson Scanner Copy Utility--even when I thought I had disabled like you. In my case I renamed it. That didn't help. After the 99.9% message the Copy Utility still opened.

Hi James, Kay and anyone else with the 99% problem,
there might be a better(easier to explain..) way of doing this, but here's how I did it:
Using Microsoft's process monitor - can be run from:
http://live.sysinternals.com/Procmon.exe (just search for procmon.exe on Microsoft.com if the link don't get posted).
Start Procmon (make shure capture is enabled, if not start capture using ctrl + E ). then start the adbrdr install. Let it run as normal until it triggers the wrong exe file - then stop event capture ( ctrl + E) Browse the long list of events until you find the adbrdr process (can't remember the exact name - but it shows the logo) - right click and select "include - process name". You should now see only the processes related to the install. Near the end of the list you should find the url of the file triggered. Find the file and temporarily renae to something other than .exe .
Hope this helps, I'm not really used to writing guides...

Kay Leppard:...Please refer to posts #46 & 57...Have you tried that link...WORKED perfectly for me and a bunch of others...Good luck...

I have been following this thread for a few days now as I have been trying without success for several days to download Reader 9 and am getting pretty desperate. I have tried practically everything suggested in the thread but no success. I am also one of the people who get to 99.9% and then get the message in a small box headed COPY UTILITY (which I gather from James Sauvage's posts this is something to do with my Epson Scanner) which reads 'Application error. Please reinstall application'. I searched for ecopy.exe which is now deleted but is still sitting in my Recyle Bin. I've tried downloading Reader 9 again - but still no success. Can anybody help me before I throw either the computer or myself out of the window! I'm running Windows XP SP3 BTW.

Kay in London, UK

Ole Ree--Good sleuthing!! Could you tell us how to determine/access the startup PATH?
It seems there are several different programs involved based on the posts above, but I suspect your information will help each of us figure out something for our specific circumstances. (For example, in my case, the Reader9 installation causes the opening of my Epson Scanner's Copy Utility. However, I do not see a setup.exe file associated with this part of the Epson Scanner. I do have a file (ecopy.exe) associated with the opening of the Copy Utility.)