Acrobat Failed To Connect To A DDE Server - Fatal Error When Opening a downloaded PDF file

Today I'm getting a FATAL ERROR - Acrobat Failed to Connect to a DDE Server on Windows Vista SP2. Just trying to view a downloaded PDF file. Searched the web, a lot of folks have the problem. No time right now. Just downloaded Foxit Viewer: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/addons.php This worked! I'm now reading the PDF in FoxIt! Anyone has a better solution that could work with Adobe Reader? Comment, let me know! ---update--- I saw this:

Generally this error comes from an anti-virus program blocking the software from connecting. Check McAfee for any type of Software blocks or firewall issues. If that doesn't work then uninstall and reinstall the program and see if McAfee then pops up with a message asking you for permission to let it access the internet.

at http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/itanswers/cant-open-pdf-files-in-windows-7/ so I stopped real time blocking with Avast. Result: Adobe Reader still not working with this file...

[SOLVED]Firefox, Vista Internet Shortcut Problem

[UPDATE 8/17/2010 - see below]
Recently, I have been having a lot of annoying problems calling up Firefox from a variety of programs. Like Windows Mail, when I click on an internet shortcut link, I get an annoying [and bogus] message like "Windows cannot find ...URL... Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again." Mozillazine at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Windows_error_opening_Internet_shortcut_or_local_HTML_file_-_Firefox suggests that a misbehaving plugin might be a reason for the problem and suggests eliminating one by one to figure out which one might be the culprit! This can take hours depending on how many plugins you have. I tried setting Internet Explorer as a default browser, which made the links in Windows Mail, etc, work, but I do not want Internet Explorer to be my default browser! So I switched back to Firefox to be my default browser and the problem reappeared again! I do have a workaround for this, but I would like to hear from YOU, if you have a similar problem or if you have a true solution. So here is my workaround.

Simple workaround:

• EXIT FIREFOX
• START FIREFOX IN SAFE MODE (ALL PLUGINGS WILL BE DISABLED)
• EXIT FIREFOX
• START FIREFOX NORMALLY

This makes my internet shortcuts from various programs such as Windows Mail, Xenu, and others work again, and I get the links show up in Firefox. So let me know if you have a true solution, better than that from Mozillazine. Thanks!

[UPDATE 8/17/2010] I found that: 1) The solution above is not permanent - I kind of suspected that 2) Just restaring Firefox in a regular normal mode helped as well. So definitely try that first. Any more permanent solutions, let me know in the comments. Thanks!

[SOLVED] Internet Connection Down After Combofix Run

I had a nasty Google Redirect Malware on my Asus 1101HA netbook. So I installed Avast Antivirus (paid version).


Yet still, I had the Google Redirect Malware operate in my Firefox and couldn't get rid of it. So I decided to run Combofix. The reasoning was that Combofix has successully removed Google Redirect Malware on my other laptop computer.

So I finish the Combofix scan, look at the Log File, let's hope for the best.



Yet now after running Combofix my internet connection is not working! Neither on IE nor on Firefox! Ping still works!

Rebooting the Asus 1101HA netbook did not help.

Rebooting into Safe Mode with Networking (using the F8) worked, the internet was back, but my only option was to use the 800x600 screen. A bit smallish! I want 1344x768!

Luckily, after a bit of search I find this suggestion from bleeping computer.com, a guy by the name Computer Masochist!

Log on as an administrator, go Start > Run and type: "cmd". In the window that appears type: "netsh winsock reset". When the program is finished, you will receive the message: "Successfully reset the Winsock Catalog. You must restart the machine in order to complete the reset." Close the command box and reboot your computer.

Go Start > Run > type: "cmd" In the window that appears type: "ipconfig /flushdns". Close the command box.

Go Start > Control Panel > Network Connections. Right click on your default connection, usually Local Area Connection or Dial-up Connection if you are using Dial-up, and and choose Properties. Double-click on the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) item. Select the radio button that says "Obtain DNS servers automatically". Reboot.

Did that, and all the above quoted commands seemed to work.

After reboot, still no internet connection!

At this point, short of uninstalling Avast completely (turning it off previously did not work), I tried the last thing - I disabled then enabled the Avast Network Scan, and disabled then enabled the Webshield in Avast.

This finally worked like a charm! Internet is back!

Apparently, for now, no Google Redirect Malware either.

Good job. Hope it saves someone an hour of figuring out what is going on. Remember, after running Combofix, my internet connection was not working and the above fixed it.