Thanks for the information, but unfortunately I am not very good at finding needles in haystacks! I do not have the programming expertise to troubleshoot using the Windows errors, I can only report them.
One more thing: I also tried to "add printer" as described in this thread, and I was able to add the "Adobe PDF Converter" printer (picked the 5th and then the 6th from the list of identically named printers). When I attempt to print to that printer, I do NOT get the pop-up error dialog box. Instead, the computer seems to "go through the motions" of printing, but no PDF is actually produced.
Here is some weird detail on this: When I try and print, I get the normal "Save As" dialog box, with a strangely pre-populated file name for the printout (looks like random letters and numbers i.e. "9WOIUC9B.pdf" ). I select "Save" and then.... the activity just fades away...nothing appears, no PDF created. HOWEVER---- when I go to "Recent Items" using the Windows 7 start button the PDF is LISTED AS IF it was created. When I select it from the recent items list, I then get a dialog box that says the file cannot be found and inviting me to search for it. Of course it is not there. If I hover my mouse over the recent items listing, it shows me the location where the file was "saved" per the dialog box, but the file is not there!