Adobe Acrobat Reader Gripes

Version 7 is Slow

March 8, 2006. Version 7 is extremely slow on my computer when printing. The problem is not cpu usage because Task Manager never shows much cpu usage at the time. This has persisted across multiple versions of version 7, I'm currently up to date using version 7.0.7.

From the time I click on the Print icon on the toolbar until the Print dialog appears it takes about 15 seconds. Even the second time printing the same document, it still takes 12 seconds until the Print dialog appears. I often print a range of pages. After swiping the page numbers in the print dialog, it takes about 11 seconds before the swipe takes effect and I can enter the starting or ending page number.  

Upgrading 7.05 -> 7.07 

Adobe Update Blues by Rick Hellewell January 12, 2007. Gripes about upgrading from v7.05 to v7.09. To borrow a phrase, "you can't get there, from here".

FYI: March 3, 2006. On a Windows 2000 machine, I upgraded from 7.05 to 7.07. This time, while the Adobe Reader Update Manager was running and downloading the 11 MB bug fix, I shut down the Acrobat Reader. This seems to be the missing link, the upgrade ran fine. Thanks, Adobe, for the documentation on this (he said sarcastically).  

February 24, 2006. It's hard to believe that the 7th version of version 7 of a product, still has bugs when self-updating. But the Acrobat reader does. 

Starting from v7.05, I clicked Help -> Check for Updates Now. The process started off normally, but after a little while there was an error from the Adobe Reader Update Manager:

Adobe Reader Update Manager could not close Adobe Reader. Please close Adobe Reader and then click on Continue to install the selected updates ...

Just like the last time I got this message, it was impossible to close the Adobe Reader. I clicked the Continue button and the update went on its merry way and completed normally. 

Part 2 of this gripe has to do with the fact that after upgrading a Windows restart is needed. This upgrade was done on a laptop. Before rebooting, I closed the lid which suspended the machine. When resuming, you see the list of Windows XP users. Instead of logging back in to my userid, I rebooted the machine from the list of users screen. Then I log on and ... Acrobat demands another re-boot. 
 

No Updates For You

October 19, 2005. On a Windows 2000 machine with v7.0.3 of the Acrobat Reader, I checked for updates (Help -> Check for updates now). It said "no updates are available at this time". Not true, version 7 is up to 7.0.5. This was not a one-day fluke, the same thing happened the next day. However, two days later (October 21st) the update check found the update to get to v7.0.5. 

Windows ME and Version 6

October 18, 2005. Acrobat Reader version 6 is apparently the latest version that works with Windows ME. Installing it also installed the Yahoo toolbar for Internet Explorer without asking.  

As documented elsewhere on this page, the initial Acrobat Reader download is of an old buggy version of the program and you just have to know to update it. Today my initial download from adobe.com was version 6.0.1. When I checked for updates (off the Help menu) it said "updated" but the version remained at 6.01. Rebooted for good luck and checked again for updates. This time it finds updates to get to 6.02, 6.03 and 6.04. 

December 13, 2005. On a Windows XP machine running version 6.0.1, I checked for updates. The program said it had been updated and to restart before continuing. Restart what? Acrobat or Windows? It didn't say. I re-started Windows just to be safe. The program had not been updated - it still reported it was at version 6.0.1. However, a second check for updates found what it should. 

Installing Upgrade to 7.0.5

October 16, 2005. It seems that every time I install the Acrobat Reader there are problems. Certainly it has been true the last dozen or so go-rounds. This time I was upgrading from version 7.0 to 7.0.5 on a Windows XP SP2 machine. 

A new error message: After v7.0was  installed I spent less than minute reading the help file for it (RTFM) and then it prompted me to check for updates. Doing so, it found v7.0.5 which I let it install. The install failed because it couldn't close the Reader. I couldn't close it either. With no other option, I clicked Cancel to do the update later. Immediately, the Reader program shut down. 

I start it up again, and in 20 seconds or so, it wants to finish installing the updates. The exact message is:

"Adobe Reader has not finished installing one or more updates. Would you like to resume installing these updates?"

I say yes. Again, it says the 7.0.5 update is available and I try to install it again. Same error:

"Adobe Reader Update Manager could not close Adobe Reader. Please close Adobe Reader and then click on Continue to install the selected updates, or press Cancel to install the selected updates at a later time."

What a disgrace. Next, I start the Reader and don't view a document and tell it to check for updates. This works. 

Bug

September 16, 2005. When you download version 7, you still get version 7.0. Then you have to apply the bug fix for 7.0.1, then the bug fix for 7.0.2 and finally the one for 7.0.3. The bug fixes are not cumulative. Why can't we yet, so many months after v7 was released, download v7.0.3 immediately and not bother with bug fixes? 

Adobe Patches Critical Reader, Acrobat Flaws By TechWeb News August 18, 2005 

Security Advisory: Acrobat and Adobe Reader plug-in buffer overflow  August 16th, 2005. Products: Adobe Reader 5.1, 6.0-6.0.3, 7.0-7.0.2, Adobe Acrobat 5.0-5.0.5, 6.0-6.0.3, 7.0-7.0.2  

I tried to update v7.0.2 using Help -> Check for Updates now. It said that no updates were available. Not true. I downloaded the patch to upgrade my copy of the Acrobat Reader from 7.0.2 to 7.03. It installed fine. 

Installing Version 7

September 27, 2005. I install version 7.0 and then use the "Check for Updates" feature to install the updates for 7.0.1, 7.0.2 and 7.0.3. However, it says there are no updates. So I manually download and install the upgrade to v7.0.1. The Acrobat Reader still says there are no updates available. Then I manually download and install the upgrade to version 7.0.2. Now, finally, the "check for updates" feature does find the update to v7.0.3. 

September 4, 2005. Windows XP. I installed version 7 of the reader over version 6 and got the error shown at the right. Saying not to undo the changes, caused the installation to fail. Saying yes to undo the changes allowed the installation to complete. Click the image for a larger screen shot.

Just like the last time I installed version 7, you still download version 7.0 and have to apply three bug fixes to get up to the latest version, which is 7.0.3. What's with Adobe that we can't download the latest version the first go-round? Unlike the last time, it seemed to honor my request not to download the Yahoo! Toolbar or the Photoshop Album 2.0 Starter Edition.

July 29, 2005. Below is an amazing amount of gripes for such a mature product. OS was Windows 2000 SP4. 

1. The Adobe page where you download v7 says the file size is 26.8 MB, but the file you actually download is only 522K. You actually download the Adobe Download Manager - nowhere is this explained. It lives in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\ESD
    
2. When you download the file, it does not ask you which directory you want to use 
    
3. There are, what appear to be, two optional downloads, the Adobe Yahoo! Toolbar and the Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 Starter Edition.  I opted not to download either. Despite this, it downloaded them. Weeks later, by accident, I found the Photoshop Album in folder
   C:\Windows\Downloaded Installations\{574598EF-8D3C-45D3-85AE-E15F91F27985}  where it was file: 
   Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0 Starter Edition.msi  of 6.4 MB. 
    
4. The first step is installing the Yahoo! Toolbar. If you don't agree to the EULA, it looks like the Acrobat Reader install will terminate, but this is not the case. It only terminates the Yahoo! Toolbar install. As for wasted bandwidth and disk space, it downloaded file ytb01_efgsip.exe which is 484K. 
    
5. The second step is installing Photoshop Album which, again, you can opt out of. The wasted bandwidth and disk space in this case was 6.5 MB for file  psa2011se_us.exe.  
    
6. Then it finally starts to install the Acrobat reader. During this it says "the program features you selected are being installed" which is not true. There were no choices at all regarding features in the Acrobat reader. This file was 19.8 MB and had a very confusing name. 
    
7. The Adobe directory (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0) is huge - 92.5MB. I suspect a big chunk of this can be deleted, but I'm not sure. The subdirectory C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Setup Files is 32.7MB. I checked the Adobe web site for information about possibly deleting this folder, but came up empty. 
    
8. FYI: Folder  C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader  is 53.4 MB.   
    
9. I found a ReadMe.htm file in the  Acrobat 7.0\Reader  folder that says 65 MB is required for the full version of Adobe Reader 7.0. Not true (especially after applying the bug fixes - see below). 
    
10. The Acrobat reader checked for updates and found an update to go from v7.0 to v7.0.1 and another update to go from v7.0.1 to v7.0.2. In other words, I had just downloaded v7.0 which is ancient and buggy. This is disgraceful. 
     
11. When you download v7, the Adobe download page says it is downloading: "Adobe Reader 7.0 Adobe Reader for Windows 2000 SP4 - SP2, English Latest version". Version 7.0 is not the latest version and has not been for quite a while. Is anyone at home at Adobe? 
     
12. What to do with these two updates? Do you need for apply 7.0.1 first and then 7.0.2 or can 7.0.2 be applied on top of 7.0? It doesn't say. I opted for the safest route and installed both updates in sequence (later I learned this is required - the Adobe update manager does this for you). 
     
13. The v7.0.1 update was 4.68 MB, the v7.0.2 update was 4.99 MB. What wasted bandwidth. I pity dial-up modem users. 
      
14. As for wasted hard disk space, the C:\Program Files\Adobe directory is now a whopping 143 MB! Gee wiz. The System Requirements from Adobe say "Up to 90MB of available hard-disk space". Not true. 
      
15. Without telling me or asking me, the installation of v7 added the Adobe speed launcher to the Startup folder. The software has no option to control this - I checked  Edit ->  Preferences ->  Startup. See the Adobe documentation on this.

FYI: You can save some disk space, by removing the files that are the 7.0.1 and 7.0.2 updates, after the updates have been installed. In the C:\Program Files\Adobe directory, they will be the subfolders with the long, seemingly random, names such as {0C55731F-7B21-4936-839A-BA09B2EAED59}. Each folder will contain a single .msi file. 

Un-installing Version 6

July 29, 2005.  In preparation for installing version 7 on a Windows 2000 machine, I un-installed version 6 which generated gripes. 

• The C:\Program Files\Adobe folder is 53.8 MB, which seems pretty large. The v6.02 and v6.03 updates that were applied each left large files in this directory. 
    
• The control panel Add/Remove applet has three entries for the Acrobat reader: Reader 6.0.1, Acrobat - Reader 6.0.2 Update and Acrobat and Reader 6.0.3 Update. Which to remove first? last? The Acrobat Reader has no self-uninstall, so you are left to guess. The Adobe v6 uninstall instructions (Remove Adobe Reader 6.x) don't directly address this. Removing the latest updates first worked for me. 
   
• After un-installing version 6, I tried to delete the C:\Program Files\Adobe folder and got this error: 
  "Renaming, moving or deleting "Adobe" could make some programs not work. Are you sure you want to do this?".
  After re-booting, this error went away and I deleted the Adobe folder. 
   
• The uninstall left behind folder C:\Documents and Settings\myuserid\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\6.0
  It is only 76K though  

Version 7

February 10, 2005.  After install, the Reader loads automatically at boot time. To change this, delete it from the Startup folder. 

It installs a small banner ad in the top right hand corner. To remove it, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Startup and turn off "Show messages and automatically update." 

Updating Version 6

February 4, 2005. I installed a program today on a computer with Acrobat version 5. The manual for the program required Acrobat version 6 which was on the CD. However, this was the original edition of version 6 which needed to be upgraded to 6.0.3. I could not. The update function of version 6.0 no longer shows any available program updates, just some new feature updates. 

Security Bugs in Version 6

December 18, 2004. The Adobe Acrobat reader has serious security bugs. A malicious PDF file could let an attacker take total control of your computer. See Adobe smoothes kinks in Acrobat December 15, 2004 By Robert Lemos of CNET News.com. 

The problems affect both the full Adobe Acrobat product and the Reader program in versions 6.0 to 6.0.2 on Windows and Macintosh. The article said that Adobe released a fix in version 6.0.3 of the Acrobat Reader which is now available. Or is it? The latest version that you can download is 6.0.1 which has the bugs. The Adobe download web site documentation says this can be upgraded to version 6.0.2 which also has the bugs. Adobe does not mention the bugs or version 6.0.3 on their web site. 

If you have Adobe Acrobat v6.0.0 then asking it to check for updates will not tell you that there is a version 6.0.1 or a 6.0.2. In other words, the update function does not work. 

I traced this back to the source. This bug was originally found by iDefense. See their description of it: Adobe Reader 6.0 .ETD File Format String Vulnerability Security Advisory from December 14, 2004. Their advisory has a link to the downloadable bug fix from Adobe. Apparently you just have to know to download this file as Adobe says nothing about it in the high traffic area of their web site and using the self-update feature of the Acrobat reader v6.0.0 or 6.0.1 or 6.0.2 will not update the program. Now you know. Tell your friends. 

Applying this bug fix is pain in the neck. It only upgrades version 6.0.2 to 6.0.3. But you can't download v6.0.2, at least not using the standard download path on adobe.com which starts here. This path, for people without any copy of the Acrobat reader or those with version 5 or version 6.0.0, requires you first download v6.0.1, then use the self-update function to get to v6.0.2, then download this new bug fix, then run the downloaded file. Got that? 

But if you know where to look, you can download version 6.0.2 directly (either the full or basic version). But, this is the Central European version. What this means, I have no idea. Oh, and this download page incorrectly refers to v6.0.2 as the latest version.  

Speeding Up Load Time

FYI:  Adobe Reader SpeedUp Quoting from the author's web site: "Adobe Reader SpeedUP is a simple application that was created to help make the loading time of Adobe's Acrobat/Reader software bearable for everyday use. AR SpeedUp only needs to be used once (a process taking only a few seconds) and then your 'Reader will be transformed forever. There are also some tweaking options available. "w00t!", as the young kids say".  This software supports the speed-up of Adobe Acrobat 4.0, 4.0.5, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, 6.0 and 6.0.1. Download it here
See also Make Acrobat Reader 6 load faster and Adobe Reader 6.0 is terribly slow. How can I speed it up?  and  Make Acrobat Reader 6 load faster  and  Speed up Acrobat 6 from the MozillaZine Forums. April 19, 2004. 

FYI: Another source (thanks Tiffany) suggested the following to make the Acrobat Reader version 6 load faster. Apparently it loads many plug-ins initially and most people can live without most of the plug-ins most of the time. Go to the home directory of the Acrobat Reader and rename the plug_ins sub-folder to plug_ins_disabled. Then create a new plug_ins folder and populate it with just the most important plug-ins by copying over these files: EWH32.api, printme.api and search.api. January 28, 2005. 

Old Software

September 16, 2004. On a computer running Windows XP, I installed some software designed for Windows 98. The machine had Adobe Acrobat version 5 (the full product, not just the reader) and the old software installed version 3 of the Acrobat Reader. This turned out to be fatal. 

The computer, of course, now used version 3 to process PDF files and many were not viewable. Nothing was viewable in a web page. I un-installed version 3 and futzed around for over an hour and could not get the computer to view PDF files in a web page. I re-installed version 5 of the reader to no avail. I downloaded version 6 of the reader, also to no avail. I played with the options regarding viewing PDFs in a browser with both versions of the Acrobat Reader program, again to no avail. I was forced to un-install version 5 of Adobe Acrobat (the full program) to get things back to normal. 

Version 6

Woody's Windows Watch Newsletter wrote about "gotchas" when upgrading to Version 6. June 30, 2003. For example, choosing 'dialup' or 'broadband' affects the default download you're given. Also covered is the issue of whether to upgrade over an old version or to first un-install a prior version. Download it from here. 

April 2004. A Windows XP computer had both version 5 and version 6 of the Acrobat reader installed. Viewing a PDF file was done with version 6. After uninstalling version 6, the computer would not view PDF files at all. Version 5 had to be manually re-associated with PDF files. (this is more of a Windows gripe than an Acrobat gripe). 

Installing Version 5.0.5

October 16, 2002. Windows 2000 Professional SP2. Version 5.0.5 was dated 9/24/2001. After the installation and reboot, it failed to clean up the temporary directory for the user that installed the Acrobat Reader (in Windows 2000 each user gets their own temporary directory). Leftover were 10 files in 3 folders occupying a total of 694,000 bytes. 

April 17, 2002. Windows 98SE. Acrobat v5.05. 

After the installation, it never cleaned up the temporary files created by the install process. In folder C:\WINDOWS\TEMP  there was an Acrobat folder that had 132 files, 21 sub-folders and occupied 31 megabytes of disk space. Note that this gives serious question to the system requirement (above) from Adobe that you need 20 megabytes of hard disk space. 

January 5, 2002. Windows 2000 Professional SP2. 

As with many programs, including Acrobat v4, the Readme file for Acrobat v5 is not available until after the program is installed.  The Readme file has the system requirements and install instructions which are needed before installing the program. As an FYI, both of these appear below. The existence of the Readme file is also not advertised at all, you have to look for it manually. It's in the install directory in the Reader subdirectory in a file called ReadMe.html.

One question that always comes up when installing a newer version of a program over an older one, is whether the older one should be un-installed first. The Readme file for Acrobat 5 says nothing about this.  

There are also hidden help files for Acrobat v5. With the program running, clicking on Help -> Reader Help shows you one of four help files that come with the product. To view the other three help files look in the install directory, then go to the Help subdirectory, then the ENU subdirectory. 

System Requirements for Acrobat Reader 5.0.5 for Windows
- Pentium®-class processor
- Microsoft® Windows® 95 OSR 2.0, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 5 or 6 (Service Pack 6 recommended), Windows 2000, or Windows XP
- 16 MB of RAM (32 recommended)
- 20 MB of available hard disk space
- Additional 30 MB of hard-disk space for Asian fonts (optional)

To install Acrobat Reader 5.0.5, follow these steps:
- Make sure you have at least 20 MB of available disk space
- Make sure you have turned off all anti-virus software before beginning the installation.
- Install Reader 5.0.5.

ReadMe File for Version 4

April 28, 2000.  I have used the Adobe Acrobat reader for many years with no gripes. Today I downloaded the latest version, 4.05. The download went fine and the installation process was simple and quick. However, the ReadMe file is shipped in, what else, PDF format. My gripe is that it contains instructions for installing the program and you can't read it until after the product is installed. Adding insult to injury, the installation process does not even tell you that there is ReadMe file. I stumbled across it only by running the program and clicking File -> Open. The ReadMe file was the only PDF file in the default directory.  

Many other software products are guilty of this too (see Netscape Communicator for example).  

The ReadMe file discusses using version 3 and version 4 of the Acrobat Reader with PDF files created in version 4 of Acrobat. This is useful information for someone running version 3 and deciding whether they need to upgrade to version 4 or not. Its just the sort of information that should be displayed before installing the product. 

The ReadMe file also has installation instructions for Windows: 
    To install Acrobat Reader 4.0, follow these steps:
    - Uninstall Acrobat Reader 3.x using the uninstaller available through the Start menu.
    - Make sure you have at least 10 MB of available disk space
    - Install Acrobat Reader 4.0

This information is particularly important for someone upgrading from version 3 to version 4 to read before installation. And speaking of available hard disk space, here are the System Requirements for Acrobat Reader 4.0 Windows: 

- i486 or Pentium processor-based personal computer
- Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 or later
- 8 MB of RAM on Windows 95 and Windows 98 (16 MB recommended)
- 16 MB of RAM on Windows NT (24 MB recommended)
- 10 MB of available hard disk space
- Additional 50 MB of hard disk space for Asian Fonts (optional)

The ReadMe file does not even show up under Help in the menu bar. Its located at 
    C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 4.0\Reader\ReadMe.pdf 

Disk Space For Version 4

July 30, 2000.  I installed Version 4.0.0318 of the Acrobat reader on a Windows 98 computer that had no prior copies of the software and was using the FAT32 file system. As part of the installation process, the Acrobat reader does not inform you of the amount of disk space it will consume. 
FYI: On this machine it used 10,944,512 bytes (about 10.4 megabytes).  

Security Bug in Version 4

August 13, 2000.  read about this security bug in Acrobat v4 in the August 14, 2000 issue of the Langa List. A malicious user could create a PDF file that would cause Acrobat to crash or to run arbitrary code on your computer. There is a fix for it, but the fix is only for v4.05. If you have an earlier version, you have to first upgrade to 4.05, then apply the fix.  

Turbo Linux Manual

September 7, 2000.  The sample output from the Acrobat Reader below was taken from the Turbo Linux user manual on a CD-ROM that contains Turbo Linux Workstation version 6. When the manual is printed, it is not blurry, only when it is displayed on a monitor. I tried this with Acrobat version 4 on two different computers (Win98 and WinNT4). 

Update: I am told that this is not a problem with Acrobat. The blurriness results from the conversion of a PostScript file into a PDF and is caused by a "Generic" PostScript driver converting text into bitmaps which are then threaded together to form the document. Most PDF files generated under Unix will have this problem. I can't verify this.  May 15, 2002 

Crash

September 23, 2000.  On a computer running Windows NT4, the acrobat reader (v4) started crashing constantly. This machine had both v3 and v4 installed, but v3 was the active one (the one that got invoked when double clicking on a PDF file).  I uninstalled v3 and manually connected PDF files to the v4 reader. I did not like this as you can see here. The acrobat reader crashed like this most times, even though the files were good (other instances of the v4 reader could read the same files).  

I un-installed version 4 and re-installed it. This made no difference, it continued to crash. 

This may have something to do with the fact that both  v3 and v4 were installed on the machine. This happened because a software product blindly installed v3 as part of its installation process without first checking to see if v4 was already installed. This has happened to me a number of times, but I don't recall the products at fault. Since v3 is installed last, it becomes the default version of Acrobat used when you double click on a PDF file. One way around this is to uninstall v4 and re-install it which gives ownership of the PDF file type back to the newer version of Acrobat. 

FYI: If the Adobe Acrobat Reader loads too slowly for your tastes, try the fast and free Foxit Reader for Windows 

FYI: Download Adobe bug fixes:  www.adobe.com/support/downloads/

FYI: Acrobat Reader v4 installed its own un-install program. Versions 5 and 6 do not, instead they are uninstalled using the Control Panel add/remove programs applet. 

FYI: Two notes from Mark Minasi's personal web site (added April 9, 2002)
1. The installer for Acrobat Reader 5.0 does not overwrite an existing copy of Reader 4.0 -- it's still there in
  Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 4.0\Reader\AcroRd32.Exe
2. An explanation of this error: "The document could not be opened because the plug-in required by the "FOPN_fLock" security handler is not available. Information about the missing plug-in may be available on Adobe's Web site"