[vox-tech] Need Windows PDF Reader

[Alex Mandel]

On 06/24/2010 10:58 PM, Bob Scofield wrote:
> Can someone recommend a PDF reader for Windows?  I need one for my business.  
> And I need one soon.
> 
> I've just had an Adobe nightmare.  I was reading business email (Thank God I'm 
> in Linux now where I feel safe) and Kaspersky AntiVirus said Adobe 8.x was 
> downloading a trojan.  So Kaspersky took a few minutes to deal with the 
> problem and kept telling me that some so-called Windows image files were not 
> real image files.  They may have been .dll files, I'm not sure.
> 
> When Kaspersky was done my Adobe icon could no longer load the program.  So I 
> decided to delete the whole program and download the newest Adobe Reader, 
> which is 9.3.  Well that automatically downloads a second program, Adobe Air, 
> whatever that is.  When I clicked on the icon to install Adobe 9.3 winzip 
> extracted the files to my desktop.  I admit that was my fault.
> 
> But what was weird was that after deleting the files from my desktop, they 
> kept reappearing after about two or three re-boots.  The last time I rebooted 
> those damn files were gone.  But if they appear tomorrow I'll have to 
> reformat my Windows XP.
> 
> Adobe seems to be bloated.  When downloading they offer all kinds of crap, 
> N.Y. Times subscriptions, etc.  I hate to admit this, but with all my 
> experience, as the one who is called upon to fix family computer problem, I 
> confess that I am incapable of installing Adobe 9.3.
> 
> But I don't want to learn how.  I want some non-bloated Windows program that 
> reads PDF files and that I can trust.  And if my wife wins the lottery, I'm 
> closing down my business and removing Windows from my desktop and laptop.
> 
> Thanks for any recommendations.
> 
> Bob

Last I checked there were no superb alternatives to Adobe Reader on the
Windows platform. Something that might be workable for you is Sumatra
http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html

Looks like evince is now on windows (it's the default in most gnome
based installs) but I've never tried it on windows.
http://download.gnome.org/binaries/win32/evince/2.30/evince-2.30.0.msi

Adobe's reader has been bloated for years, Air is similar to XUL from
Mozilla, basically a library which people can make desktop based flash
applications with. It has interesting potential but like
Itunes/Quicktime I really wish it wasn't bundled into a behemoth that
eats memory whole and doesn't let you turn it off.

Good luck,
Alex