Acrobat 8 "stopped working". Activation issue?

I am using (ahem, trying to use) Acrobat 8.1 Professional on Windows Vista. I never had any problems with it, but starting a few days ago, whenever I'd start my computer, I'd get a message saying that AcroTray had stopped working and needed to close. Later, when I tried to start Acrobat, I would get the same message about Acrobat itself.
There is no useful information in the error messages. I get my only hint of the nature of the problem if I try to run Acrobat Distiller. First I get the old "AcroTray has stopped working message" but then I get another message saying "Acrobat Distiller cannot continue because Acrobat is not activated." The Creative Suite is definitely activated; I can run all the other applications without problems. I have tried to fix it by doing a system restore in Windows, and by uninstalling and reinstalling the whole Creative Suite. That didn't work. I also found some information on the Adobe site about FlexNet licensing, which seemed vaguely related, but following those instructions did not help.
I cannot figure out how to activate Acrobat, if indeed that's what I need to do.

Ok, I believe I have finally succeeded. Not sure what the final cure was but I have been able to reactivate Adobe Acrobat. The problem is well known by Adobe but there is little help forthcoming (nice guys from India are happy to read the Adobe website for you over the phone but have no idea what the problem is or how to solve it). Well, there are lots of possible solutions…too many…they really just need to fix how they handle the authorization and activation of their Creative Suite and Technical Communication Suite. Apparently Acrobat does just deactivate at times for a variety of reasons…not even for good reasons. I was not downloading, or upgrading, or reinstalling..was just another normal day working on documents.
I believe the combination of activities that solved the problem included (not necessarily in this order) the following list. Note I am running Windows XP.
* Remove all Adobe software from the laptop using the Control Panel "Add or Remove Programs" tool.
* Delete all temporary files off the system using System Tools "Disk Cleanup".
* Tip toe through the registry file ...
 1. Choose Start > Run, type regedit in the Open text field of the Run dialog box, and then click OK. The Registry Editor will open.
2. Delete these registry keys
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat\*.*
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\*.*  
* Run the "Windows Install Cleanup" utility http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301/* Reinstall Adobe Creative Suite (sans Acrobat 8).
* Reinstall Adobe Technical Communications Suite (including Acrobat 8 3D).
* Confirm that the following files exist
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\alm_config_files\AdobeConfig.xml
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8\Acrobat\alm_config_files\aul.xml
* Open Acrobat and run a repair from the Help menu, be sure to disable your virus scanner.
* Install the following patch
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3661There are many many many other suggestions from Adobe and from other web blogs/forums on what to do to fix the problem. Good luck is all I can say. It took me a week of futzing around but I am now back up and running.

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