Smart Tech Tips

Every time I setup a new machine I have to make sure to remind myself to install adobe reader or some other kind of pdf reader like it or else my clients will invariably call me as soon as I’m out their door wondering why some (pdf) files they have does not load up. If you have a MAC, Preview will take care of all your pdf needs and more. Until Windows include one too, please read on.

For years that meant going to adobe.com and searching for that ever elusive ‘get adobe reader’ button. And for a while that has worked pretty well…until a few years ago. They started bundling google toolbar which made me have to read and uncheck this F#$%en ‘feature’ before I download. Not only was it annoying to be asked to install something you didn’t want but also to add insult to injury, it meant the file will be bigger and take you longer to download it. What finally made me give up completely on adobe reader was some time last year they started installing adobe.com and adobe air with every installation of adobe reader. Sure you can uninstall them AFTER you are done installing but they should have given you an option to not install it in the first place. Better yet they should have done what they did with the google toolbar and given you an opt-out option BEFORE you download reader. I’m sure these two forced-down-your-throat ‘features’ added over 10mb to the already bloated 90mb-ish download.

I started looking for alternative solutions and stumble upon foxit reader. This program was exactly what I wanted until recently they started catching the adobe bug and made the program bloated and user unfriendly. So now, I’m singing the songs of Sumatra PDF. They are what foxit use to be before becoming such a commercially centered product. You simply download the program and it will run from where you clicked on it. You can permanently install it by moving it somewhere like ‘program files’ or even in your ‘documents’ directory.

Here is the link to the main site:
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/download.html

This is to an installer if you’re inclined:
http://kjkpub.s3.amazonaws.com/sumatrapdf/rel/SumatraPDF-0.9.4-install.exe

This is to just the executable file:
http://kjkpub.s3.amazonaws.com/sumatrapdf/rel/SumatraPDF-0.9.4.zip

I would like to know what you guys use as an alternative to Adobe PDF Reader. Who knows, maybe we can put them on the track and race them…as long as Michael Vick is not around. He’ll just bring on the fed’s mojo.