[FIXED] Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Error AcroRd32.exe/Acrobat.exe

Overview

I’ve tried to deploy Adobe Reader 9 and Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard/Professional in a couple of Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services environments now and have always come across the following issue when using roaming profiles/redirected AppData folders. Last time I suffered this issue back in early 2009, I was unable to find a fix, forcing me to revert back to Adobe Reader 8/Adobe Acrobat 8 which does not suffer from this issue.

Issue

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library

Runtime Error!
Program: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate  it in an  unusual  way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.

and

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library

Runtime Error!
Program: C:\Program  Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe

This application has  requested the Runtime to terminate it in an  unusual  way.
Please  contact the application's support team for more information.

When working on my latest Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services deployment, I came across the same issue once again, and decided to do some more research to see if a fix was available.

I read about this issue being fixed in the 9.1 release (http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404597.html) and patched to version 9.3.2 to be sure but still received the same error.

Solution

With further research, I soon came across the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955555

Basically, there seems to be a bug in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 that when roaming profiles are used in a domain environment, the LocalLow folder is not created. This folder is required by Adobe Acrobat 9 and when it can’t be found, the program crashes.

Download the Hotfix from Microsoft and install on your Windows Server 2008 (SP1+) Terminal Server.

All fixed! And to think i’d been blaming Adobe all this time!