Allowed Acrobat Reader to update to latest version - 11. Now java won't work on my Win7 Enterprise machine. Acrobat Reader has forced itself to be associated with .jar files and prevents java from executing. Removing AR 11 allows java to work fine, installing AR 11 kills all java - it looks like AR 11 intercepts the .jar file and java.exe executions. From a command line with AR 11 installed the response to "java -v" is "unable to start JAVA VM".
Without AR11 installed java works without a problem. With it installed Win7 won't allow file association for .jar files to be changed back to java - it stays at Acrobat Reader even after registry updates. It looks like something in AR associated service is changing it back to AR instead of allowing .jar files to stay associated with java.
What is AR 11 trying to do with .jar files? Is this intentional or a bug? It's causing problems because the computers need both Java programs and a PDF reader.