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"Cannot use adobe reader to view pdf in your web browser" error in Windows 7 and Acrobat pro 8.1.7

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
October 22, 2009
44 replies
286472 views

I get the error "Cannot use adobe reader to view pdf in your web browser. Reader will now exit. Please exit your browser and try again" in Windows 7 x32 and Windows 7 x64 with Acrobat pro 8.1.7. This happens when trying to open a PDF file in Internet explorer 8.0.760 or when I open a PDF in Quickbooks 2008. If I answer ok or cancel the file opens normally. If I open acrobat 8 first then the pdf files open as expected. I also tried a copy of Acrobat reader with no difference in the outcome. Since this happens on two different computers one fresh copy of windows 7 x64 the other an upgrade to windows 7 x32 and they used to work before the change to windows 7, I assume there is some kind of incompatibility with windows 7 and acrobat. Is this a known issue and will it be fixed in an update to acrobat in the near future?

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Correct answer Bernd Alheit

For Windows 7 you will need Adobe Acrobat 9.1.

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J

jrfendrick

Participating Frequently

The issue persists in Acrobat Professional 8.2 running on Windows 7 x64.

I have mitigated as previously described.

In Acrobat - go to Edit -> Preferences -> Internet; deselect all three of the checkboxes "Display PDF in browser," " Allow fast web view," and "Allow speculative downloading in the background." When using Internet Explorer, this will force all PDFs to open in an Acrobat window with no dialog boxes popping up beforehand. If you're using Firefox as well, you'll need to change the PDF file settings to "Use Adobe Acrobat 8.1." Once again, PDF files open in an Acrobat window, no dialog boxes.

There's no good reason why you should have to upgrade to Acrobat 9 for Windows 7 compatibility. Other software packages from a similar vintage (Fall 2006) run just fine on Windows 7 with little to no modification.

elongp

Known Participant

Thanks for your reply. I had mentioned in an earlier post that we're still on Win XP SP2 and SP3, so it's not a Windows 7 thing for us. And unfortunately, nothing that you guys have posted is working for us. On the other hand, some people never have the problem. Like me, of course, the initial tester.

Thank you all for your suggestions. If anything else occurs to you, please post a reply!

E Powell

Austin, TX

J

jrfendrick

Participating Frequently

elongp,

I just thought of something for you to check, if you're having the problem on XP.

Do any of the affected XP machines have the Windows Automation API library update (KB971513) installed? This update contains the "Microsoft User Interface Automation (UI Automation) and Microsoft Active Accessibility libraries that are provided in Windows 7." Conversely, do any machines not affected by the problem have the update installed?

It may be a long shot, but it may be why you are getting the problem on XP machines when the rest of us are seeing it on Win 7 machines.

O

ouboguoji

Participant

http://www.spam.com/default.aspx

M

mightyquinnabroad

Participant

I had the same error using Windows 7 x32 with Acrobat Pro 8 and Firefox. Simply unchecking “Allow fast web view” (Acrobat>Edit>Preferences> Internet) seems to have solved the problem. Hope this helps some of you.

R

R Rufus

Participant

Thank you for the suggestion. I tried it and Acrobat still crashed. I'm not trying to read in a browser, I just want to catch up on all the continuing ed material that comes in pdf files.

Good New Year to you.

Allta Media

Community Expert

This Technical Note may help address the issue:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405461.html

Also, the first version of Acrobat and Adobe Reader to support Windows 7 is version 9.2. Earlier versions of Acrobat and/or Reader are not supported.

For more information on this, check out the FAQ at:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/faq/

elongp

Known Participant

I browsed the responses and didn't see our exact situation. We just pushed out an upgrade to Adobe Reader (and Acrobat, but the problem is with Reader) from 8.1.2 to 8.1.7. You'd think it would be pretty straight forward. About half of the people in the agency seem to get an error when they try to view a PDF in the browser, "There is a problem with Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and try again." Sometimes when they click OK, the PDF opens. Sometimes not.

We've unchecked the display PDF in browser, and that fixes some people. Others it brings up the Save dialog box and won't even open. We've repaired, uninstalled and reinstalled to no avail. The only thing that seems to work is leaving Adobe Reader open and then it all works fine.

We're on Win XP SP2 & 3 and Adobe Reader & Acrobat 8.1.7.

Any other ideas? People are getting pretty frustrated. You'd think an upgrade like this would be virtually invisible to the users. Argh!

E Long Powell

Austin, TX

120087.doc

A

Anonymous

I fixed this on my Windows 7 64-bit PC. I am also running Acrobat Pro 8 and had installed Acrobat Reader 9.2. I was getting the same pop-up in IE.

Solution: I first went into Control Panel and set the program default for PDFs from Adobe Acrobat Pro to Acrobat Reader. Then in IE, Manage Add-ons, I disabled the first Adobe add-on in the list, "Adobe PDF ... version 8.1." I think by disabling this it allows the next add-on in the list "Adobe PDF Link Reader" to open PDFs on web pages.

E

EGLAW

Participant

I have this same problem. But, in addition to this problem, I can no longer even open Acrobat. I am using Acrobat Professional 8.1.7 and Windows 7 - 64 bit. Everything seemed fine until I upgraded to Version 8.1.7. I activated it when I first installed it but since I can not open it, I can not deactivate it so that I can uninstall and reinstall it. Any suggestions?

A

Anonymous

When you uninstall the Acrobat, there is a window that comes up that reports

the deactivation to Adobe, so that computer's use comes off the system.

That enables you to reload it and there is an available use on the system

that you just generated by the uninstall. So you should be all set to

uninstall it if you want to. If for some reason it doesn't allow the

reload, just call their customer service number and tell them what you're

doing and they will set an exception on their system and you will be good to

go. They seem to be very accommodating. I had a computer that died and I

couldn't uninstall Adobe Pro, which meant I couldn't put it on the new one.

I called them and they put the exception on their system and I was OK to go.

What I did on my Sony that finally worked for me is:

Uninstalled Adobe Reader 9.2

Did a registry clean using the Sony Vaio Care feature they have

Downloaded Adobe Reader 9.2 again from their web site

My add ons now look like this. They actually are in a chart format when you

call them up through "Tools":

Name Adobe PDF

Publisher Adobe Systems, Incorporated

Status Enabled

File date Thursday, May 10, 2007, 9:47 PM

Version 8.1.0.0

Load time 0.03 s

Name Adobe PDF Link Helper

Publisher Adobe Systems, Incorporated

Status Enabled

File date Friday, February 27, 2009, 1:07 PM

Version 9.1.0.163

Load time 0.00 s

Name Adobe PDF Conversion Toolbar Helper

Publisher Adobe Systems, Incorporated

Status Enabled

File date Thursday, May 10, 2007, 9:47 PM

Version 8.1.0.0

Load time 0.00 s

Name Adobe PDF

Publisher Adobe Systems, Incorporated

Status Enabled

File date Thursday, May 10, 2007, 9:47 PM

Version 8.1.0.0

Load time 0.00 s

My associations look like this (go to Tools....Internet

Options...Programs...Set Programs....Associate a File Type)

pdf 9.2

pdfxml 9.2

pdx 8.1

Hope this helps.

B

Bob TMTAuthor

Participant

I have been watching this forum post since I started it and so far the only thing that has mostly worked for me is setting the following; in Adobe acrobat preferences under Internet, uncheck "Display PDF in browser". This brings up a separate PDF window without the error. I have tried checking and un-checking it and every time it is checked the error comes up. So at this point to avoid getting the annoying error I just leave the "Display PDF in browser" box unchecked and get a separate window with no errors. I haven't been able to try it on my 64 bit system as I had to send it in for other unrelated issues, I will let you all know when I get it back.

A

Anonymous

After many hours of dealing with this problem, I finally got it to work. I am using Windows 7 w/ 64 bit on a Sony Vaio.

I had Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro and Acrobat Reader 9.2 loaded. I noticed that when I got the error box, it was Acrobat 8 Pro that was generating it, not Reader 9.2.

I checked file associations and it was associating pdf and pdfxml files to 8.1. I changed it to 9.2. No difference. I went into Manage Add Ons and saw that my plug ins were mostly being used from 8.1, not 9.2. Disabled and enabled the lot in many different ways, to no avail.

I finally uninstalled 9.2 so that I only had 8.1 running anything pdf and it would work sometimes....but not without the error box first. I basically gave up hope and was awaiting Adobe to fix their little problem.

Then during the day, my Sony Vaio care went off and said it was time for a scheduled maintenance. It cleans the registers, defragments etc etc, so I activated the maintenance.

Later that evening, I decided to exercise futility once more and downloaded and installed Abobe Reader 9.2 once again to try and figure out this problem.

Well....after the download, it works flawlessly everywhere it previously failed. I rechecked the file associations in Windows 7 and they are now associated with 9.2...one of them still 8.1. I checked the plug ins and they are still operating out of 8.1 except for one that is using 9.1.

So the fix for me was uninstall 9.2, do a registry clean, re install 9.2. I doubt if Adobe drummed up a fix between my problem and no problem.

Good luck.

F

Felix_Schrodinger

Participant

I had a similar problem using Firefox as a browser in Vista with Adobe Reader 9.2. The message says "The Adobe Acrobat

/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your web browser and try again"

This is completely useless as advice and Adobe support is no help either. However, using the advice from this forum, I have tried various combinations to arrive at a solution that works:

Open Adobe Reader and uncheck the box "Display PDF in browser"; restart computer (only need to do this once)

Open Adobe Reader
Open the message website in Internet Explorer (not Firefox)
Go to the message; if a security message comes up as a banner, check OK to allow the file download
Go back to the message and it will open in Adobe Reader

Not the cleanest solution but it's solved six months of headaches for me!

Having read a little more, I also tried the Firefox solution from above. In my version: