Thursday, July 05, 2007

Startup Message: Computer must be restarted before updating can continue

Each time you start your computer you see the following message:
The Computer must be restarted before updating can continue. Would you like to restart now?
Your choices are Yes or No. If you click Yes, the computer is forced into a reboot, but the message returns. If you click No, you can work normally.

ISSUE: You may have a failed Adobe Reader 8 update. This updater places an entry in a Registry RUN key for the "AdobeUpdater.exe" application. The "AdobeUpdater.exe" application is located here: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5

If you open these folders and double-click on the "AdobeUpdater.exe" application, you should see the same message as above.

To test if you need to do the Workaround, do this first. Open Adobe Reader 8. From the Help menu choose Check for Updates. If the program checks for updates and finds them, apply. This may solve the issue. But if you see the same error message after a restart, you should do the Workaround steps are provided in our eNews article.

2 comments:

Tripwire said...

What solution would you suggest for those who also have Acrobat Pro installed? Uninstalling and reinstalling that beast is not the most enviable solution.

If this continuing error message is the result of a flawed registry key would it not be far more simple to just correct that?

Sadly, running the provided Bootstrapper repair tool at - ..\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Setup Files\{GUID}\Setup.exe - doesn't fix the problem either. :\

Tripwire said...

FYI, registry key is here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Delete it and reboot. If the problem is gone, open Acrobat and try to run the updater - Help->Update.

If it runs then you're safe. If not, run the repair program as described in previous comment.