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The Joel on Software Discussion Group (CLOSED)

My system was slow to startup. A tool revealed that Adobe had put two programs on the startup !. For Acrobat reader !.

Seriously,what do these people think of themselves?. That their program is so important that it needs to load on starup irrespective of the fact that many people rarely use Acrobat reader on a daily basis?

I have also noticed Acrobat crashing when its embedded in the browser. This is happening for the past 5 years or so.

I especially dislike programs that put entries in the startup or the system tray without explicit permission from the user.

I've never much liked file formats (.pdf) that are so complex that they are a form of lock-in.  But there you go.

Either use Adobe Reader 5.0 or FoxIt http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Use FoxIt

I believe you can disable loading all the plugins at startup there by reducing the start up time.

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2004/11/24/269567.aspx

But, that's no excuse for slow startup.

win XP users can find most of the programs running at startup via the System Information (Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->System Information).  Look Under "Software Environment"->"Startup Programs".  Shows registry keys, paths, etc.

Yup, it's been around with the last few versions of adobe. Here's a relevant link to Raymond Chen's blog entry from about 2 years ago:  Performance gains at the cost of other components.  When I first read this article, I immediately thought of the Adobe pdf reader.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/03/11/394249.aspx

I uninstalled Acrobat Reader and installed FoxIt, but now Firefox won't display PDFs. If I want to view a PDF file, I have to download it and then open it outside of Firefox.

Hunt around for some extensions for Firefox.  I think I remember seeing one for Foxit and Firefox.

Another recomendation for foxit.
Also look at "autoruns" from sysinternals to monitor and kill startups

Acrobat is the new RealPlayer, sticking junk everywhere, but if you disable all that stuff manually, Acrobat is pretty good.

FoxIt is good too, although you have to manually configure it for LCD screens as the default font rendering is way too heavy imho.

The most annoying app is the InstallShield Updater that ships with the goofy CD-recording software that Dell bundles.

I uninstalled the actual, but the undead InstallShield updater insists on popping up at inopportune times to tell me that it has NOTHING to update, despite the fact that I told it to never inform me of updates, ever.

I'd like to take the clown who cooked that up, and stick him with the Adobe crew on a rubber raft in the South Atlantic.

FoxIt

This is the same company that bombards you with "CRITICAL UPDATE REQUIRED" popup messages every time you run the application, when the only thing you want to do is read the dang PDF you're looking at.

>>I uninstalled Acrobat Reader and installed FoxIt, but now Firefox won't display PDFs. If I want to view a PDF file, I have to download it and then open it outside of Firefox.

Yeah, that's one drawback.  What I did was manually went into firefox's options->content tab->File Types->Manage and made sure PDFs were set to open with foxit.  Unfortunately it doesn't open right in the browser, the reader opens in another window.

After the first five minutes I felt this was much better than adobe, even without the browser plugin.  The reader takes about 1 second to open.

+1 FoxIt. Or maybe "1" is not enough.

Buy a faster PC

While we're at it, does anybody know a good reason why I need a desktop icon for Adobe Reader? Has anybody ever, in the history of computing, clicked the icon to open it then gone through the whole "File->open..." process?

I forget the last time I saw a new PC without an "Acrobat Reader" icon on the desktop. Ack!

In the long term I like to think that this sort of crap gains them more haters than fans...

...like Apple with their "if you want to watch a 'mov' file you have to install the whole of iTunes and let us hijack your browser" approach. I'm now actively against .mov files and do my best to avoid them wherever possible.

Re: the Adobe Reader icon.

I use that icon once after a fresh install. I do it to click Accept on the EULA dialog. At one time (and maybe still) Adobe Reader had the tendency to leave that dialog hidden (with no taskbar button to clue you in) when you first opened a PDF in the browser, effectively locking up the plugin.

The full version icon is useful on occasion if you're going to scan something in.

Plenty of people start the app instead of double-clicking on the file. The different approaches method came in with Windows 95. And pretty well every app puts an icon on the desktop, though only a few ask. I have a completely blank desktop for my work machine because I don't want students to be distracted by the background on the screen, but most people still have immensely cluttered desktops.

...late to the party, I am, but "FOXIT" is the way to go...

@OP:
Adobe's lack of response even to paying customers is legendary.  Adobe believes that it is the sole possessor of the technology that *everyone* needs, and they act as monolithically as Microsoft et al.  I assure you that they do not care how annoyed ANY of their users become, nor will they until they get hurt in the wallet (if they are smart enough even to see THAT coming).

>...like Apple with their "if you want to watch a 'mov' file you have to install the whole of iTunes

no you don't. clicking the 'free download' button on http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ takes you to a page with a very clearly labelled choice between downloads with or without iTunes.