🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm not sure what changed or how but I'm suddenly having trouble with Adobe Reader 8. When I try to view any PDF file, online or on my computer, I get a message that says "There is a problem with adobe acrobat/reader. Please exit acrobat/reader and try again." I don't have acrobat so it can't be some kind of conflict. I tried to update reader to reader 9 but at the end of the installation I get the message "The windows installer service could not be accessed. This can occur if you are running windows safe mode, or if the windows installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance." I'm definitely not in safe mode so I tried removing reader 8 through the control panel and I get the same message.
I've tried making sure that reader is the default PDF program but it is not on the list availible to select. When I try to browse and select the AcroRd32 file (which I think is the .exe) nothing changes. I still can't view any PDFs and I'm stuck with the same errors. Anyone got any advice?