I am getting this error when trying to remove software.

Install the latest version of Acrobat Reader:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Afterwards, verify that there is only one version of Reader in the add/remove list.

Chances are you deleted the uninstaller which is referenced in the Registry for Acrobat. Not uncommon.

I had the following error trying to install v8. Error 1714. The older version of Acrobat Reader 8 cannot be removed. Went through their help, and went into my setup files, ran the setup for 7.08. This let me install v8, but the older version is still installed.

Normally this would happen if you installed from a network share and the share was gone, or maybe if the uninstaller was dropped in a directory that you don't have permissions to (do you remember what user installed it?) or if the installer was deleted.

Please check out this link, it will hopefully help: http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/332773.html

That's the page I went to. Guess I will have to try the windows cleanup. I assume I loaded the software, but I can't find the v7 download. I usually save them to a download folder.

Got-r-done. Had to go in and delete folders manually. Thanks

Once you delete the folders, you can go into add/remove programs and when it finds the program folder is no longer there, it should ask you to remove the startup entry. I would just manually install the newest version after that...

Deleted the startup entry manually. Uninstalled v8 before I deleted the folders, just in case. Then a clean install.

You had me really hunting there. It appears that Adobe is having quite a bunch of problems with their uninstallers. McAfee has been having similar issues for the past couple of years, keep running into new Dell and HP computers that came pre-installed having leftover services that are just filling up everything with error logs on a system. Seems a bit silly!

Seems like the most important part of any software you can install is the UNINSTALLER. I guess some companies don't feel that way, or have enough problems getting it running well that they can't mind spending time on that stuff! :D