What I did was this:
1. Start Task Manager. You need to have that up and running before you start Acrobat. Click on the Processes tab.
2. While keeping a sharp eye on Task Manager, bring up Adobe Acrobat and open up something until you get the red box to pop up. I had to restart a couple of times before it came up.
3. You'll see a process start that coincides with that dialog box. I think it's called GenuineEdition or something similar. You'll see it in Task Manager, and you'll see the executable filename that's also associated with it.
4. Do a search on that filename on your C: drive and in the registry and you should find the registry key and the file folder. If I remember correctly, the file folder is in the Adobe program directory somewhere. I think it's simply called "GE."
I had saved directory with the executable file on the chance that someone on FR would require the information but after a while I deleted it. Believe it or not, that was just a couple of days ago!
Let me know if this helps, and if it does, keep track of the registry key and folder location. Learn from a lunkhead like me, don't delete important information before documenting it!
If I can find the folder name somewhere (I'm doing a search on my hard drive for the deleted folder) I'll post it.
Good luck!
I think the offending program is:
AdobeGCCClient.exe
I have renamed it and deleted the key from the registry.
Somewhat the same but a bit different from your post. It was in the GC folder, which is probably what you meant by GE. But at least for me, AdobeGCClient.exe was a running process regardless of whether the pop-up box was there or not. Killing the process, killed the box. Just did it now so the effectiveness is not yet proven over the long haul. My popup box was pretty infrequent.
Johnny Cakes was right about the program file. It's a directory buried within the Adobe program directory in the Program Files (x86) directory. Check these two out:
c:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\
c:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat\
The directory it's in is called "GC," and the file name is "AdobeGCClient.exe" and there could also be a file name called "AdobeGCUpdater.dll." I even found a file named "dispatchtable.xml" there as well.
DELETE THE ENTIRE DIRECTORY!
The registry key where I found "AdobeGCClient.exe" was called:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\1B8DC4840EADDB343B2D25158713B3C0\68AB67CA330100007706000000000050
however, you'll probably want to do a search on the "AdobeGCClient.exe" file name because it could be a slightly different location.
DELETE THIS ENTIRE ENTRY
Sorry this took so long. I realized just this morning that this offending program could also be on my laptop computer which also has Acrobat 10 on it. When I searched for it I found it and copied this information to share with you all.
ShadowAce, I wanted to get this to you too so you could get it out to everyone on your ping list.
Thanks for your patience!