First, thank you very much for your time and response. I am probably one of those people who should not own a computer.

I went to "start"; "control panel" and could not find "settings" although I did locate "folder options" under "tools" pdf wss not listed, so I added it and the computer added the adobe symbol. Adobe is listed under program files.

I went back to OE and I still could not open pdf files, nor could I install Adobe when told. "Unable to update the system registry" still appears.

Help, please
George