My computer operating system is Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 3 installed. Everything was running perfectly until about 2 weeks ago. I have Windows and Adobe set up to run automatic updates whenever they're available. I'm not sure what Adobe update was installed, but immediately after it installed, I could not open any PDF file without my computer crashing. Also, whenever I try to start Adobe Acrobat Pro or Photoshop, my computer suddenly also crashes. I tried uninstalling Acrobat Pro, but when I tried that it also caused my computer to crash! So now I can't even uninstall any of my Adobe software!
All my Microsoft software is running perfectly (Word, Excel, Outlook). My Internet browser (IE) is working just fine. Why are my Adobe software packages and PDF files the only things not working? And why can't I even uninstall any of it? I looked to see if I had any Acrobat Reader installed (free one), but Windows doesn't list anything like that under the list of installed programs. It just shows that Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, Flash and a few other Adobe programs are installed.
I've always used McAfee anti-virus software, and have never had any virus problems. I don't think this is a virus, because I can open my PDF files on other computers without any problems. So the files themselves aren't affected.
How can I solve this terrible problem, and how can I prevent it from happening again?