[dba-Tech] .exe always runs Acrobat

Got a phone call from a (database) client in a pickle.

He's running Win XP, and has done *something* that has resulted in Adobe
Acrobat trying to run whenever he tries to run ANY .exe program: Word,
regedit, ..., as if Explorer had somehow got a file type association of exe
with Acrobat - which doesn't make sense.

Double-clicking on a .doc file opens up Word ok, for instance, but trying to
run Word directly brings up Acrobat.

The last thing he recalls doing was something like pinning a new program
onto the upper pane in the Start menu, and then changing its ?name,
?properties.  Sorry, it gets a bit confused here.

I've got him to run System Restore from command prompt in Safe Mode, to get
back to a previous checkpoint, but this failed at a late stage on starting
up Windows when it was apparently trying to run its own restore utility
program - yes, an exe, which tried to run Acrobat ...!!&$%"@%!

This is outside my experience, and it's a difficult thing to try to look up
in the KB.

Any bright ideas I can pass on to him when he gets back to work in about 12
hours?

John