Adobe Reader XI

[CJW]

I forgot I didn't have a .PDF reader on my comfuser, so in a bit of a hurry 2 days ago, I DL'd Adobe Reader XI.
Today, I went into Adobe Reader's preferences & selected "Do not download or install updates automatically".
I also went into the registry & (using MSConfig as a guide) deleted Adobe's startup entry found at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
There is also a service entry (pic below), should I set that to Disable/Manual?

Also, I've heard a little about FoxIt Reader. How does it compare to Adobe Reader
& is there a way to edit (fill-out forms, remove pages, etc.) .PDFs?

 

[theveterans]

I have tried Foxit Reader. It's very light and fast and doesn't put deep registry settings unlike Adobe Reader. However, it just fails on some PDFs which doesn't show the content correctly, and it also misses on filling form functionality where everything looks fine on the screen, but when you print the pdf with the filled forms, the texts were misaligned and not showing correctly. Sometimes fill out forms don't work right. That's why I've gone back to Adobe Reader since it's the most compatible reader and is the "standard" out there. To me, modern PCs are fast enough not to notice a performance hit when installing and running Adobe software. If you find Adobe reader slowing down your browser or its performance then you can try Foxit Reader since I haven't used it for more than a year and I don't know how much they improved the compatibility with PDF features.

 

[Alejandro85]

I would always prefer the official, original Adobe Reader over anything else that tries to mimic the same functionality. I don't like however those things you point out, as they don't leave the user the decision to what things to install out, but quite a few installers do the same anyways and you must hunt down those nasties.

In particular, there is no problem if you simply delete those 2 things. The service only downloads updates from their website (without user knowledge or consent, of course ). Disabling it doesn't cause any harm, and I would highly recommend that.
Other than that, I prefer the original Adobe reader.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I would always prefer the official, original Adobe Reader over anything else that tries to mimic the same functionality. I don't like however those things you point out, as they don't leave the user the decision to what things to install out, but quite a few installers do the same anyways and you must hunt down those nasties.

In particular, there is no problem if you simply delete those 2 things. The service only downloads updates from their website (without user knowledge or consent, of course ). Disabling it doesn't cause any harm, and I would highly recommend that.
Other than that, I prefer the original Adobe reader.

Actually, it would be safer to set Adobe Reader to notify one when there are updates are available. the vast majority of Adobe updates, if not all of them, are security related and should not be ignored. Waiting a few days to make sure there are no reports of problems from the updates is a good idea and it is more convenient to be able to choose when to install them.

 

[CJW]

Thanks for the info everyone.
Besides setting Adobe Reader's preference to 'Do not download or install updates automatically' & deleting Adobe's startup entry, I also set the Adobe Acrobat Update Service to Manual; all seems to be running just fine.