Adobe reader would not uninstall - now can't reinstall

I have an application that displays pdf documents within an html page.  Only recently when I would open one of these pages, IE would ask for permission to download the file and then open it in another window instead of on the page.  In firefox it opens in another window now too.  I uninstalled reader 8x and installed 9 and same thing.  I then unistalled 9 and then found another 8 reader in a folder named Reader 8 that I could not unistall or delte.  I ended up deleteing by deleting in the registry and taking ownership of to identity files h and v - royal pain... Now when I try to install reader 9, the installation fails and there is no explanation or solution offered.  Can anyone help with either of these issues?  Thank you