I just tried to access the PDF of my TV's manual, but Adobe Reader kept locking up the computer forcing me to turn off power to it to regain control.
So now I'm looking for a PDF reader other than Adobe's.
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Alternatives to Adobe's Reader for viewing PDFs
AudioGames.net Forum → Off-topic room → Alternatives to Adobe's Reader for viewing PDFs
Posts: 18
#2 2015-11-12 07:57:37
Well, you can always use xpdf's tools if you just want a text extract. But getting the thing up and running on a Windows box is something of a chore. I'm fairly sure I've seen this packaged up by somebody though, and there have been online services to do this in the past.
Have you just tried Googling the URL of the PDF file? If it's public, you can often just use Google's cache.
Just myself, as usual.
#3 2015-11-12 22:02:00
This is really wierd, so I'll share it.
Thinking I had a corrupted Adobe Reader install, I tried running the Reader installer again to do a repair. It said that Reader was already installed and exited. So I uninstalled it, and that's when things got really weird!
After uninstalling Reader, my Windows start menu was empty. All the stuff in it was gone. Even the stuff Microsoft puts there like Computer, Control Panel, and Devices and Printers. The shut down button was there but the submenu for it was also empty. Also the network stopped working because I had no internet access.
Reinstalling Reader restored the start menu and the network and fixed Reader.
Very friggin' weird!
#4 2015-11-13 01:00:50
That is extremely strange. Adobe shouldn't be able to do that. Removing the shutdown menu requires system-level access (the system user), something that you, as a normal user, cannot allow, even if UAC asks you for permission to do so. It is plainly impossible. I think that you have a virus'd computer.
"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." — Charles Babbage.
My Github
My Github
#5 2015-11-13 02:03:43
You could be right, I use MSE which I'm not all that impressed with. The reason I use it is because it is accessible.
#6 2015-11-13 11:31:11
use q read. the trial version ends after 30 days. I really encourage you to buy it. you can get it from here.
https://q-continuum.net/qread/
#7 2015-11-13 16:51:31
I'll try it, but I have my doubts it's a virus. I mean why trash Windows just because I uninstalled Adobe Reader unless the virus author intended it as an attack on Adobe?
#8 2015-11-14 00:22:46
@GeneWarner, try AVG ultimate. Believe me, that will definitely desroy any viruses you've got.
"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." — Charles Babbage.
My Github
My Github
#9 2015-11-14 05:29:48
I second the recommendation for QRead. I've thrown quite a few pdf's at it, and it's done a really good job at rendering them readable. Adobe is notoriously slow, but that's the first time I've ever heard of it causing the kind of destruction you've described.
The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.
#10 2015-11-15 02:48:48
Ethin,
How accessible is AVG?
I remember a couple of threads a while back asking that question about all the better known anti virus programs and the general concensus was that none of them were very accessible.
#11 2015-11-15 18:11:21
Ethin,
Rather than try AVG Ultimate, I decided to try AVG Free anti virus, I got my answer about how accesible it wasn't pretty quick. I got to the second page of the installer where they try to sell you the Pro version and no matter what I did I couldn't get it to continue from there when I chose not to buy Pro. So I canceled and deleted the AVG installer, and decided that AVG wasn't accessible.
So now I'll see if I can find the thread about accessible anti viruses to see what else I can try.
#12 2015-11-16 03:02:14
@GeneWarner, AVG is extremely accessible for me. It's the installer that sucks; after you get passed the installation process, it's completely accessible. Don't base a program's accessibility based on it's installer. That will hinder you dearly.
"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." — Charles Babbage.
My Github
My Github
#13 2015-11-16 03:57:03
Ethin, How do I install the free version of AVG? I downloaded what I thought was the free version but it turns out to be a trial of the pro version. Uninstalling it now because it is not what I wanted.
#14 2015-11-16 04:52:13
#15 2015-11-16 05:13:18
Well to be fair anything made by Adobe could already be described as having viral qualities, regardless of whether or not it's actually malicious. It's certainly responsible for a lot of the dross that gets installed on Windows boxes, and I'd prefer to be without it. Then again, reader is the only way to read tagged PDFs and handle forms.
Even MS are saying that MSE is baseline. They're right. They've fallen way behind their competitors. I should give up on it.
Just myself, as usual.
#16 2015-11-16 05:25:49 (edited by Figment 2015-11-16 07:29:33)
Well, now I really wish I hadn't installed AVG.
I don't know what version of AVG you have but this 2015 version is proving to be barely accessible with a lot of difficulty, with JAWS or NVDA.
Even worse, AVG thinks JAWS is a virus and deleted it.
So now, not only do I need to remove AVG, I need to restore JAWS. And the last time I tried to remove AVG the uninstall failed spectacularly.
AVG can go to ()*&)!@&)&! hell!
Whew! After a couple of hours, damage repaired, and AVG is gone! That was as bad as getting rid of a virus.
#17 2015-11-16 19:03:32
Sebby, I agree with you about Adobe, for what it does Reader seems pretty bloated, plus it installs a bunch of crap not at all related to reading PDFs, like the browser helper that allows Reader to load faster so you can view PDFs online. I don't need that, I always download the PDF, then view it. Viewing is faster and smoother that way.
#18 2015-11-24 20:35:45
Yes! I win, I win,I win!
Because of its bad behavior and other problems it was causing, I tried again to uninstall Adobe reader. The uninstall seemed to go smoothly, but when it was over I still had the start menu corruption past attempts to uninstall reader caused.
But this time I had Adobe's clean up tool for failed uninstalls, on a whim I ran it and let it do its thing. When it was done the start menu corruption was gone!
Yay!
Now I'm going to go through my hard drive (actually a SSD) and the system registry and remove any traces of Adobe's software that still remain.
Then I'm going to take the advice of several recommendations here and try QRead.
Posts: 18
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