zep516, Thanks. I point out for those reading that I did update the subject Acrobat Reader, and my question was driven by the surprise that Acrobat is supporting both a 7.x and an 8.x version. Going to Acrobat's update site with 7.X installed resulted in an update to 7.X+, not an update to 8.X. Seems there must be some reason, maybe 7.X will run in Windows 2K and 8.X will not. I am running XP on both target machines. I also went to Acrobat's update site on a machine with 8.X installed, and it too got an update, to 8.X+ in this case.

Snidely's comments about mainstream web sites are right on target. Such sites are usually run by knowledgeable webmasters who know how to keep their site secure and are prompt to take action if the site is attacked. Infected ads can happen, though and here is where a little common sense can pay a huge dividend. When you think you might want to click on an ad, make a decision about how important the product/service being offered is to you. If it is important, make an effort to locate the provider's web site yourself rather than depending on the ad to take you there. If you think that's too much work, then think about the potential downsides of an infected computer which could include fraud and/or identity theft. Persons who try to practice safe computing generally don't stumble into trouble. Persons who refuse to practice safe computing don't have to go looking for trouble...it will find them soon enough. This post was edited by azinoh on Sun, Feb 17, 13 at 9:36

Thanks Mikie, again! It is the same one I tried to install. It has their toolbar. Its almost impossible to get rid of it once installed. They have made it mandatory to take their seach toolbar with the free ZA. Probably even throw it in with the paid version. Last year you could install by clicking 'skip all offers' but even clicking it installs the search toolbar. I'm running Win XP and need a firewall. Jane

Thanks for the responses and help. I am not using antivirus and removed the the antivirus before my Adobe problems. I checked/installed updates to Windows and IE. I went to Adobe.com and installed/reinstalled. This morning the issues seem partly fixed. When I am on a web page, such as Yahoo, whether in IE or FF, some of the boxes display and some don't. If I go to a web page page, like Yahoo's tech page, that has mostly boxes that have videos in them, I see the text in the boxes but they are otherwise blank. If I click on the box a video then starts playing. I know this isn't how it's supposed to work, but it's better than it was yesterday. Maybe if I wait till the next Adobe or Windows update it will sort itself out? Thanks for the suggestions. If you think of anything please let me know. I think I will put this laptop away for a week or two and use my Win7 laptop instead. I'll check on updates the next time I get it out and hope for the best.