Version Cue Server 4.0.1 Update Problems

Question

I've recently run into a problem with Version Cue Server 4.0.1. I've been using "Adobe Creative Suite CS4 Master Collection" without any problems until a couple of days ago when I ran the updates.
The updates locked up and failed on Version Cue, and after that, every time I right click on my desktop or in Windows Explorer, I get the error message:
"The specified module could not be found. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe Version Cue CS4\4.0.1\VersionCue.DLL"
Then everything crashes and reloads.
I called tech support and they said to reboot in a simplified mode, create a new administrator account, and reinstall version cue. Didn't work. I tried reinstalling both from the CD and from the downloaded update. Same problem. The installation goes most of the way and then fails.
I uninstalled Master Suite and was able to right-click again without problems, so I went back to a simplified boot and tried re-installing the software...which crashed my computer and caused the same right-click error message.
As I said earlier, everything worked fine right up until the point I ran the updates, so I know the software will run on my computer (Vista 32bit service pack 1).
Thoughts?

Answer 1

All,
I personally have been driving this issue at Adobe. As mentioned before, we've been hindered by the fact that we cannot yet reproduce the problem on a machine in our offices. But I've been doing all that I can to coordinate between customers and Senior Computer Scientists who are investigating this.
Here's the new information that has been learned by remotely debugging on customer's machines (great thanks to those who have made time for this!).
The problem is isolated to the binary patching function in our update components. This means updates that modify the files on your current system are impacted. Updates that simply replace the existing files with all new versions of the files, are not affected. While I don't have a complete list of which update uses which method, I can say that the recently released Photoshop CS4 and InDesign CS4 updates use a full file replacement method, so they should be no risk.
It was earlier believed that this problem only happened in the context of the Adobe_Updater.exe, which downloads the updates and runs them in with UI suppressed. This is now known not to be true, so "manual" running of the updates is not a valid workaround (sorry for those who spent time trying this).
There is some suspicions that the issue has to do with the temp folder being used by the updater. I've tested a private build with a change in this area on a couple customer machines, and got more elegant failures (didn't cause apps to stop working), but still no success
Lourens Van Der Jagt,
I found your observation about the "FAST IO DISALLOWED" messages to be very interesting, and forwarded that, along with results of my recent tests of the private build, to the devs.
One other thing that I found on the Vista machines I've looked at, which I'm curious about. On all machines I've looked at, the NTFS junction (looks like a shortcut) named "Program Data" in the root of the user folder is visible, while all other junctions are not. And, the junction can be browsed. All other Vista systems I've ever seen do not display this unless protected system files are asked to be displayed, and then they cannot be browsed.
I want you all to know that I have been working hard to represent you and get a resolution for this. I appreciate the hardship it presents to you, and I take it very seriously. Please keep the dialog going, and I'll try to keep updating here and in other threads as much as I can.
Sincerely,
Matt