Adobe Acrobat Plug-in Causing Internet Explorer to freeze

[robertb79899028]

We have an Adobe plug in that allows our employees to view PDF's in the browser.  Recently they have been experiencing a consistent issue of the PDF freezing in a gray screen and will not even start a loading bar. This causes all of Internet Explorer to freeze and have to task kill and start over.  This is a critical problem for us right now as viewing PDF's in browser is part of many employee's daily routines, and downloading the PDF everytime is not a solution, as we have code that populates certain fields but only when it's opened in browser.

I have looked at other threads on this site and it appears I'm not the only one with this problem, and that there is also no solution available.

Like I said earlier this is a critical fault in our employees day to day and some update or solution would be greatly appreciated.

Internet Explorer Version: 11.356.18362.0

Adobe Version: 2019.012.20040

Adobe PDF Reader add-on Version: 19.10.20064.310990

Thanks

[ls_rbls]

If you have not done so yet, you should also post this question in a Microsoft support forum.

I dont know whicb operating system you are using, which in the case of Windows 10, a lot of users have voiced that similar issues appear after an update took place in their machines.

Also which Adobe Acrobat are you using, Reader DC or Acrobat Pro DC.

Be aware that Microsoft announced end of support for Internet Explorer. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling a 32bit version of Internet explorer instead of the 64 bit IE? Then retry the plugin .

Also, just for testing purpose, have you updated the java runtime environment in those machines?

And lastly, can you check with another browser if the internet access plugin would work with Firefox, Chrome, Opera?

[robertb79899028]

Thank you for the reply

[ls_rbls]

Yes, you're welcome

[robertb79899028]

Thank you for the reply, sorry I accidently hit send, I have posted a similar question in a Microsoft forum so thank you for pointing me in that direction We are using Windows 10 Version 1903. We are using Adober Reader DC. What is the difference of installing the 32-bit version of IE? Regardless I will try it here on my machine, but I'm just curious. As for Java, I do believe so but I'm not sure. I can check and will let you know. The plug-in does work fine with Chrome, as well as Firefox.

[ls_rbls]

I am suggesting to check if the windows 10 is forcing (or assumes) that every application will run in 64bit mode. So if your IE explorer was actually a 64bit version but not the the internet access plugin that was working before , for example, maybe switching between the two can make something work out. Here is the link for the download: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/18520/download-internet-explorer-11-offline-installer I was also thinking (just for testing purposes) if it would be convenient to run the troubleshooter and select an older version of windows environment for that plugin, like dropping back to Windows 8.1 or a Windows 7 environment.

[robertb79899028]

When I try to download the 32-bit version of IE11 it says "This version of setup doesn't support your Windows system type (32-bit/64-bit)" I will have an oppurtunity to try it out on an older Windows OS tomorrow, I'll bring in my ISO to work so I can load up a VM. I understand that you may not be able to fix this until the next update of Windows or Adobe, I just wanted to make sure that I added my voice to the others that are saying this is an issue. I will reply back here tomorrow when I've tested Windows 8.1.

[ls_rbls]

You can do an offline installer for that version if you use an agent switcher plugin in your current browser. That way when the website reads what your browser is publishing out about your machine you can configure it to appear as a windows 8 machine for example, using an older version. (or use a browser that is able to block all type of OS fingerprinting)

[ls_rbls]

I have to clarify, when I said to run the troubleshooter I meant to goto seettings and run the the troubleshooter I meant run the Compatibility Mode Troubleshooter just for the application that is misbehaving. Even though  Adobe Acrobat is inherently a 32bit application that has been tested to run in 64bit Windows family of operating systems,  the application may behave with newer updates that are now aimed to support 64bit only environments. That said, quite afew announcements has been published by Microsoft in regards of End-of-Support or End-of-Life for some products that were previously supporting 32bit applications such as Adobe Acrobat , for example.

Since the Adobe Acrobat was working before, we want to test an earlier version of Windows with it with the Compatibility Mode troubleshooter; this will reveal or rule out if the problem is actually related to  a bug in Adobe Acrobat (like many users are claiming) ; I suspect is more related to a 32bit vs 64 bit  compatibility issue rather than a bug

[robertb79899028]

Do you have an Agent Switcher plug-in you would suggest? None of the one's I found allow me to replicate an older version of Windows.

[ls_rbls]

In that case I would definitely recommend downloading and installingOpera browser or see if you can find a windows veraion of Konqueror browser. They are both highly flexible in this area as they will allow you , not only, to change the user agent of your browser but also the type of operating system and appear as other. I forgot to clarify that the agent swithching can be accomplish manually in chrome and firefox, but that just handles the browser user agent part. For this purpose i think you should be good with opera browser.

[ls_rbls]

I apologize, I totally got side-tracked with the topic.

I rechecked with newer versions of Opera and it does not have that feature to change the OS environmenr anymore.

Seems like they opted to handle that through 3rd party extensions now.

In any vase, you can use any agent switcher available for download for whatever browser you use.

The ones that I've personally used is Browserling, Agent-User 007 and User-Agent Switcher.

However, after reviewing this last conversation I did not added to the diacussion that there is not need to do all of that.

You need to goto the offline installer download area.

For Adobe Acrobat Reader you need to go here: Https://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions

For Acrobat download and installation help:

https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/acrobat-downloads.html

OR, go here (this link was part of im another thread posted in these forums by John T Smith and marked as correct):

https://prodesigntools.com/adobe-cc-2019-direct-download-links.html

[ls_rbls]

So I researched a little more and since you've mentioned that you are using windows 10 there isactually a feature that allows you to emulate another environent with MS Edge.. other browsers may allow you to access a similar developer mode. 

For the purpose of this thread MS Edge will do when you go here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/

In that page , right-cllikc on any area of the page and select Inspect element and follow the slides You can also press the "F12" key to invoke the developer mode window. .  You can change the user string agent of your browser here.