Adobe Reader problems

In the last few days two people have told me of problems with Adobe Reader.

One is that they cannot open documents (Windows XP), the other (on Windows Vista) that the update to version 10 fails somewhere near the end saying there's an issue with a version 7 file.

Currently I have no more information.

On Tuesday I'm going to have a look at the first of these. The second I'll arrange to have a look at sometime; may have to un-install and re-install, but I'd rather understand the problem more first if I can.

Anyone know of, or had experience of, similar problems with Adobe Reader?

I know there are alternatives, personally I use FoxIt, so recommending scrapping of Adobe reader is not a helpful response.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

Anyone know of, or had experience of, similar problems with Adobe Reader?

Problems with Adobe Reader? *laughs insanely*

Yes, I saw the issue with refusing to update to X a few days ago on an XP computer.

Full uninstall using add/remove programs then fresh download from filehippo (avoids having to use their Adobe DLM) should sort it.

On an unrelated note the latest version of Adobe Reader X does not work properly with Firefox 5 for me.. Loading bar appears but stops at 99% or so and never dispays the PDF.

Roll on Modern Reader in Windows 8 ...

Edited by Pipexer (Sun 03-Jul-11 13:46:20)

I must admit that I don't use IE, FF 3.6.18 for me. I suspect both the instances I referred to are IE PCs.

The other point is that I've often had problems opening PDF documents inside a browser and have now changed the settings to open the reader as a separate application.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

I know there are alternatives, personally I use FoxIt, so recommending scrapping of Adobe reader is not a helpful response.

I use sumatra PDF. Better than foxit.

I have found bugs in Reader and Foxit. In Reader X if you have your internet preferences to not open in read mode the toolbar never shows, so u have to open in read mode then switch to normal mode. Annoying.

In Foxit 5 if you open a secure pdf in a browser, eg bill from Utility company, Foxit crashes and wont recover, have to disable the plugin and use Reader X.

Have reported both bugs, no idea when they will be fixed. Seems both programs have been rushed out without proper QA.

I used to have problems with foxit, in that it did not open directly from fire fox and then that seemed to be improved and it worked ok.
I Still use foxit, but iron now not firefox.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

Anyone know of, or had experience of, similar problems with Adobe Reader?

Similar - no. However I'm sick of the update installer dropping an AR icon on my desktop. It has to be the most useless icon in the world to have anywhere let alone on the desktop.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

In the last few days two people have told me of problems with Adobe Reader.
.. (on Windows Vista) that the update to version 10 fails somewhere near the end saying there's an issue with a version 7 file.

Went round this afternoon re this one. It was a painful process as the PC has only 512Mb RAM and was overloaded with automatically installed software.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was Adobe Reader V7 running (which has compatibility issues on Vista) and the document needed was from the HMRC website and needed a later version of the reader. I tried an in-flight update but that hung after about 89% so I killed that, uninstalled the Reader and Air and Adobe DLM and downloaded and installed Reader 9 from Filehippo (thanks Pipexer ).

That worked and was able to download and view the document in question.

We'll see tomorrow about the other one.

In reply to a post by cheshire_man:

One is that they cannot open documents (Windows XP)

I had a look this afternoon.

The system didn't want to open a PDF file saying the wrong version of Acrobat was installed. As it was trying to open in the browser I changed Adobe Reader V9 to open as a separate application. It opened, albeit with a warning, then.

Looking deeper I found that Acrobat.com, Adobe, Acrobat, Adobe Reader 3.0, and Adobe Reader 9 were all installed. Clearly scope for confusion. I uninstalled all the unnecessary ones, we'll see how it goes.