Mind-boggling ineptitude

Question

All:
Recently completed the drill of upgrading to a new primary work computer, using all of the latest technology:  Windows 7, Intel I7 processor, 6 gigs ram, you get the idea.  Part of the upgrade was to Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended.  It took about 1.5 hours with Adobe tech support to walk through multiple iterations of the upgrade before the problem was escalated and finally solved with a provided product registration number that should not have been needed.  Great attention to detail, especially when purchasing a product upgrade directly from Adobe (what was I thinking?).  . 
Fast forward a few days, during which Adobe Pro Extended seemed to be working as advertised.  No changes or upgrades were made to either IE8 or Adobe 9.  I go to open a web link through IE8 that should have opened up in Adobe.  Crashes both IE8 and Adobe 9.  Same thing happens when attempting to open any PDF file through IE8.  Hours spent speaking with Adobe tech support representative in far away land.  Absolutely no idea as to what the problem might be, no suggestions, just the same questions over and over again, with no meaningful help offered.  I speak to an unrelated IT representative who asks if I tried another browser.  Great idea.  I try Google Chrome and there is no indication of the problem and everything works just fine. 
The questions that follow are:  i) has Adobe never heard of fatal problems with Adobe 9 Pro Extended interacting with IE8/Windows 7?  If so, why would Adobe not inform its tech support personnel that perhaps they should make that suggestion as their first recommendation, or maybe they just really like detaining people trying to make a living for hours so they can't do their job;  ii)  Is IE8 not the an extremely common browser, bundled with Windows 7, and should not Adobe 9, if it is to work correclty with ANY browser at least work properly with IE8?;  iii) Do Microsoft and Adobe simply have no interest in determining whether these very common applications are even capable of functioning together foe people who assume these software giants know what they are doing (realizing the absurdity of this proposition)?
At this point there is no indication that Adobe 9 will ever interact properly with IE8 when attempting to open a PDF file on-line. 
Any thoughts, comments, or recommendations would be most appreciated.  Congratulations to Adobe on the fine work with 9 Pro Extended and its complete inability to interact with one of the most common pieces of software on the planet. 
GEAviation

Answer 1

There are a plethora of problems particular to individule PCs that not even Adobe can be held responsible for. As a general rule, I've found Adobe products to be very stable I would think your problem might not be with Acrobat but Internet Explorer.
IE works (and always has) outside the standards all other Internet software developers find so useful. Acrobat has to be standards complient but IE (and Microsoft themselves) would rather be seen as inventing standards than adhearing to them. IF you have stability with Chrome, your problem is solved. IE is not the sort of browser I'd recommend for a business based PC that has passwords and the like stored on it.
Doug.