Application Manager, Win XP SP3, Kernel32.DLL

Rube Goldberg would be happy...

The initial problem: When I print from Firefox (current version) to the Adobe PDF driver that's part of Acrobat Pro, the results are garbled.  If I send the output to a printer, no problem, so it seems like it's in the Acrobat software.

I started by trying to update Acrobat.  Launched Adobe Application Manager, which triggered a download and install, but the install fails with the ever popular A12E1 error code.

I looked that up here and got directions for directly downloading Adobe Application Manager 10.0.  Downloaded and installed the program, but when it runs, I get a new error message: "The procedure entry point CreateSymbolicLinkW could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.DLL."  That message is not found in the Adobe forums.

Over to Microsoft.  Found directions to copy KERNEL32.DLL from the Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder -- which requires jumping through some hoops as the DLL file is open (and locked) when Windows is running.  Swapping the DLL file did not fix the problem.

Since Application Manager used to run fine, I tried installing v9 then v8.  Both install programs said they finished successfully, but the PDapp file never changed dates.

Found another entry in the Adobe forums telling me to download Creative Cloud Cleaner and use it to delete Application Manager (which I did by telling the Cleaner I wanted to clean up the "Creative Cloud" files).  The cleaner said it had completed, but the PDapp files were still on the system.  The same forum topic told me to delete the OOBE folder and then run the Application Manager install program.  I did.  Ended up with a new copy of the same file I had -- and the same error message.

While probably not directly related, Acrobat has been telling me there's an update available but I get an error when I try to download it.

Also, I just launched Acrobat and clicked the "Help\Repair Acrobat Installation" option.  That led to some activity, but then the same error message as above about KERNEL32.DLL.

More information.  After rebooting (which the Acrobat repair action said I needed to do), I was able to use the "update Acrobat" icon in the system tray.  It downloaded and successfully installed the latest version of Acrobat XI.  So that's one step forward.  However, Acrobat itself popped up an error message window.  This one had a window title of "adobe_licutil.exe - Entry Point Not Found" and the text of the error message was as above: "The procedure entry point CreateSymbolicLinkW could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll."

Running Application Manager still gives the same error message.