This Microsoft Fix …
bit.ly/FixAdobeAir
… worked perfectly for me. It basically wipes the system of all traces of the old Adobe Air. In my case that's all that was needed … nothing to do with Services or anything else I read before coming on this solution. I've been a huge Microsoft critic in the past, but I have to admit this isn't the first time one of their "Fix it" tools managed to clear up a long-standing annoyance.
By the way, this is the link to download Adobe Air :
bit.ly/DLAdobeAir
What I did is download both items linked in this message, ran the first one ( the Microsoft tool … be sure to point to Adobe Air specifically when it shows you a list of programs and asks if you see the name of the troublesome program ), then, after it completes and asks if the issue was fixed or not, I just left that window open and ran the Adobe Air installer ( second link ) which installed without issue finally ( and fast ), before going back to the first window to indicate : Yes!