Adobe Reader 9.x & 8.x "requires Internet Explorer 6"

Question

Friends PC in Italy had Reader 9.0 (Italian) installed and working fine. It has had Reader in various versions Italian & English over the last 5 years with no problems.
Tried to update it to latest/securist version but got an error message that the update had failed in Italian (which I don't read)..
Decided to uninstall and reinstall the latest version instead.
Uninstall went through fine via control panel with no errors.
Installing the 9.1.x Italian or English for XP SP3 (and also the 8.x.x) all fail every time with, the English version error message saying (and the Italian also) every time at c99% of the Nosso Adobe download manager:
"Adobe Reader 9.1 requires Internet Explorer 6.0 or greater. Please visit www.microsoft.com to upgrade Internet Explorer."
XP is XP Pro SP3 (Italian)
MS IE about says 7.0.5730.13
Belarc advisor reports Microsoft Corporation - Internet Explorer Version 7.00.6000.16850
Have followed the MS KB 917964 tips to (a) reset IE7 and (b) Reinstall IE7 with no change in Adobe Reader symptoms = stuck without Reader which is not a happy place to be.
HELP anyone ?
MK

Answer 1

Thanks, MK. I was hoping the fix would be as simple as modifying an entry in the registry but everything seems to be in the proper order this far. I have seen a resolution to this issue which involved using a program named Orca to modify the MSI installer package so that it foregoes checking for IE but that should be totally un-necessary and it a fairly technical approach. I can provide you those directions if you are interested but I'd rather have you check a few others things first to see if we can actually get to the root of the issue.
First, let's try running a few Microsoft tools to hopefully resolve any errant registry or disk issues:
Cleanup temporary files:
1. Open My Computer
2. Right-click the C:\ drive > click Properties
3. Click Disk Cleanup > place a checkmark in all options except "Compress Old Files" > click OK
Repair file system issues:
1. Open My Computer
2. Right-click the C:\ drive > click Properties
3. Click the Tools tab > click Check Disk
4. Place a checkmark in "Automatically fix file system errors"
Repair registry:
1. Disable any anti-virus software that may be installed
2. Go to: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-US/center/whatsnew.htm
3. Click Full Service Scan
4. Install any necessary plugins when prompted
5. Run the complete scan when prompted and allow it to fix any issues it finds
Since we are dealing with an Italian version of the OS, the site may redirect to the Italian version of the site (hopefully one exists). The OneCare Live safety scanner is meant to be a security tool for removing malware (not great at that part of its job) but it also includes a registry repair tool that has resolved many odd registry issues I have encountered since finding the tool.
Finally, if none of the above fixes the issue, Adobe has a tool named CS3Cleaner which removes all traces of the Adobe SC3 suite. In doing so, it has proven to also remove most, if not all traces of ANYTHING Adobe. Uninstall all Adobe products prior to using this tool and see if it doesn't clean up any miscreant traces of the corrupted file and/or registry that may be causing the issue.
CS3Cleaner: http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs3clean.html
My bag of tricks is getting thinner so if this doesn't fix the issue, I will have to dig deep to see what else I can come up with.
Best of success!
     Michael