With the rise of interactive web pages the popularity of plug-ins has also increased. Plug-ins help in enhancing the performance of the browser and in running the desired software within the browser environment. Some of the most common and widely used plug-ins are provided by Adobe and they are Adobe reader, Adobe Flash and Adobe Shockwave.
What are Adobe products and when to uninstall them?
Adobe is a software company which provides products in the areas of multimedia, web documents and Web development. Some of the popular plug-ins provided by Adobe are Flash, Reader and shockwave player. The plug-ins help in viewing documents and running online videos in the browser and when any of the plug-ins get corrupted, they pop up errors within the browser.
There are 4 reasons for uninstalling the adobe plug-ins and they are:
1) When it corrupts the browsers and gives constant errors
2) When a newer version is unable to update and overwrite the old version
3) When one of the Adobe plug-ins corrupts another plug-in
4) When a website behaves abruptly with the installed plug-in
To overcome these errors, you will need to uninstall the adobe products. You do not need any remote PC support or help of a computer repair technician to run you through the un-installation process, and you can easily do this on your own.
Uninstalling Adobe Flash player plug-in
1) Open the web browser and browse to the Adobe website and select flash player
2) Download the flash player uninstaller based on your OS
3) Close all the applications which uses flash like browser, instant messengers etc
4) Browse to the location where the downloaded file is present
5) Double click on the file and it will completely remove the flash player from the system.
It is very important to close all the applications which use flash else the uninstaller will give an error.
Uninstalling the Shockwave player
1) First close all the browser and Instant messenger and programs which uses shockwave
2) Click on Start go to Control Panel
3) Select Programs and Features or Add/Remove Programs
4) From the list choose Shockwave player
5) Click on Uninstall
6) This will completely uninstall the shockwave player from the system
You can also download the shockwave uninstaller from the Adobe website and run the software to uninstall it from the system.
Uninstall Adobe reader
You can uninstall Adobe Reader from the system using the following steps:
1) Close all the browsers
2) Click on Start
3) Go to Control Panel
4) Select Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features depending on the type of OS
5) Choose Adobe Acrobat reader from the list of programs
6) Click on Uninstall
This will completely uninstall the Adobe reader from the system. If the problem with acrobat reader continues you can remove it from the registry. It is advised to take the help of a computer repair technician if you have limited knowledge of windows registry.
1) Click on Start
2) Click on Run
3) Type Regedit and Click on OK
4) Browse to the keys given below and delete them
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Reader
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Adobe\Adobe Reader
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Adobe\Repair\Adobe Reader
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\68AB67CA7DA73301B7448A0000000020
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-A80000000002}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\68AB67CA7DA73301B7448A0000000020
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\68AB67CA7DA73301B7448A0000000020
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy\{358E6F10-DE8A-4602-8424-179CA217F8EE}
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Low Rights\ElevationPolicy\{9C6A861C-B233-4994-AFB1-C158EE4FC578}
Once this is done you can browse to the program files folder and then delete the folder for Adobe Acrobat.
The above steps are used to remove Adobe products from any windows OS based system. These steps ensure that they are removed completely from the system and any error occurring due to them can be resolved. Adobe products have dedicated knowledge base web pages which act as computer tech support in itself and help in solving all kinds of errors.
"Copyright 2010 Fixit99.com, Mike Scherenberg. For more information or to view this original article, please visit http://www.fixit99.com
