Adobe install does not assiocate programs with file extensions

Question

Adobe CS4 was installed then Adobe CS5.5 was installed, Adobe CS4 was then removed.  Now I have noticed that some of the workstations are having file association problems, specifically with Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator.
The file extensions .pst, .indd. (to name a few) are not associating with the appropriate programs. You can open these files while in the appropate programs, but I cannot double click on the files to open up the program. I've researched this issue and it seems that the following is happening:
1. The progID file path for the program is still pointing to CS4
2. The file extension has not been updated to reflect that it belongs to the appropriate program
3. The following error comes up "Adobe Illustrator has detected a problem in the window registry which needs to be corrected for Illustrator to work properly. Would you like Illustrator to correct the problem now?
This has happened on 3 different workstations, the fix I found for error 1 is to dive into the registry and update the progID with Adobe CS5.5's new file path.
To fix Error 2 and 3 Adobe CS5.5 needed to be uninstalled, then a registry sweet of the unused extensions and the old registry entries using Ccleaner, then a reinstall of Adobe CS5.5.  After all of this everything is working perfectly.
Has anyone else had this issue? If so what were your solutions to these issues? Is there a patch or a hotfix or an update I can push out to multiple machines so I don't have to do this on a per machine instance?

Answer 1

You have to uninstall the current version of CS and then install the new version of CS in order to keep these file extensions from breaking. It's as simple as that, if you are having issues with Photoshop not showing up then it's due to the file path still pointing to the old version of Photoshop. You need to go into the registry in order to fix this.
Go to the following:
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\photoshop\shell\open\command
Than change it to the current file path for CS5.5 and that should enable Photoshop to show up in the open with menu in windows. 
For example:
This is the old file path in the registry
Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\photoshop.exe
This is what it should be changed to in order for open with to work
Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5.1\photoshop.exe
After you do this it should work, but this is kind of a bandaid in order to get photoshop to work in windows open with menu