FYI: DefaultSelect behavior changed after Adobe update

Question

Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard
Version: 8.2.2
Windows 7 64bit
After a recent automatic update, opening Acrobat defaults the selected tool to the Select tool instead of the hand tool. I've tried the following:
a- I've been all over the preferences page to no avail - I cannot find a place to set the default select to the Hand tool.
b- I found some references in the Unix forum about making the Hand tool the default select. Acrobat though doesn't use a .adobe folder.
c- I located the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\8.0\Selection\aDefaultSelect (yes, aDefaultSelect) which is set to Select. I changed it to Hand, but when acrobat re-starts, it sets it back to Select
d- I tried using grep on my users folder for DefaultSelect to see if there was a file-based setting forcing it to select
Auugh!
After banging my head for a few, I started playing with the registry settings until I hit paydirt. The problem seems to be caused by the setting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\8.0\Selection\bShowKeyboardSelectionCursor - this was set to 0x1 (boolean true). This setting corresponds to a setting on the Accessibility preferences page "Always display the keyboard selection cursor". When that's on, it forces default select to Select, ignoring the Hand setting.
I must say - that was a frustrating endeavor - I hope others benefit from this little excursion. I don't know how that setting was enabled (I didn't do it), but un-doing it was painful.
Take care,
Marc

Answer 1

Thanks for that tip. I have been frustrated by this change. I really appreciate it.