i found the problem. adobe puts the new version in a different place and leaves the old one where it was. i was using an old shortcut to the old version.
make sure you're using the one in "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Digital Editions" and not in "C:\Documents and Settings\*\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\www.macromedia.com\bin\digitaleditions1x5"
if you're reading, adobe, please fix this.