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

[Bob TMT]

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?

[EGLAW]

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?

[Guest]

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.

[Guest]

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.

[elongp]

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

[mightyquinnabroad]

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 Rufus]

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]

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/

[jrfendrick]

I really do wish that Adobe would just come right out and say, "We're not supporting Acrobat 8 on Windows 7.  We're instead going to extort an upgrade fee from you for what should be just a simple fix."

On the other hand, Acrobat 8 functions well enough for me under Windows 7 that I won't be upgrading any time soon - the kludge that Bob TMT describes above (unchecking "Display PDF in Browser") works well enough for me to not justify paying Adobe's extortion fee.  Yeah, it's not ideal, but then again - neither are Adobe's heavy-handed business tactics.

[Allta Media]

Actually, if you read the FAQ section you'll find Adobe's policy for supporting versions of Acrobat and/or Reader earlier then 9.2. It is as follows:

"... Adobe will support Windows 7 with Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader 9. Adobe has tested Acrobat 9 and Adobe Reader 9 software on Windows 7 and found our solutions perform to our high standards of quality and performance.* Earlier versions of Acrobat and Adobe Reader may run on Windows 7. However, Adobe does not support Acrobat 8, Adobe Reader 8 or prior versions on Windows 7 and does not plan to release updates to those versions for Windows 7 compatibility."

They also go on to note that you'll specifically need the 9.2 update for Windows 7 support.

[elongp]

Actually, we're still on Windows XP, some on SP2 and some on SP3. Adobe Reader 8 works fine on WinXP. Everything was fine at version 8.1.2. We just recently deployed the upgrade, which entails installing the full version of Reader 8.1.3 and the 8.1.6 and 8.1.7 updates. People with Adobe Acrobat 8.1.7 seem to be fine. It's the people with Reader only.

We've tried alternately unchecking "View PDF in browser" and/or "Allow fast web view". Where it prevents the pop up question for some, for others it brings up a dialog box with the only option to Save or Cancel.

This is such a frustrating thing, especially since it isn't the latest version, as you all have noted. Thanks for the suggestions... if you think of anything else. 

E Powell

Austin, TX (sunny and ~60F outside right now!!)

[dnfox93]

I have had this issue since I installed Windows 7 x64 bit with Adobe 8.  I have been able to resolve this issue on my machine by installing Adobe Reader 9 on my 64 bit Windows 7 machine.

When the installation finds out that you do indeed have Adobe 8 installed, it will ask if you would like to continue to use adobe 8 to read pdfs, but it will update the workflows (or something to this effect.)

When the installation was complete - no more message and the pdf opened in the browser without issue!!!!!!

I also verified that opening a pdf locally will open the pdf in Adobe 8 rather than Reader 9.

If you have Adobe 8 installed and do not have Reader 9 installed, install the Reader and choose to continue to use Adobe 8 to read pdfs....worked like a charm for me!

[elongp]

Thanks, but this is not occurring for the people using Acrobat Pro 8.17. This is only occurring for people with Reader 8.17 only. And we are not upgrading to Reader 9 until we can (afford to) upgrade all of our Acrobat Pro licenses to 9.

Anyone else with other ideas? Nothing is really working for us so far. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

E Powell

Austin, TX

[Bill12]

I really do not understand the logic in not upgrading the Reader if you are having problems with it. Reader is free and there is no charge for the upgrade. You should not be installing both Acrobat and Reader on the same machines unless you have folks that can deal with the problems that arise -- not the typical user.

[billrp]

I really don't understand why you don't understand.  Acrobat costs several hundred dollars, and Adobe has a new version every year or even sooner.  I don't want to pay that much recurring charges to Adobe for something like Acrobat.

[geovie]

I agree with you.

[geovie]

I agree with you. This is just pure business and they think I can't resolve the problem. But through this forum, I was able to solve it by going to the tools, application and defaulted it to Acrobat Reader 9.

[jz2010]

I upgraded to reader 8.2.4 and it seems to be fixed.

[gkaiseril]

You are lucky. But at some point in time Microsoft will update the OS and your version of Acrobat will not work and there will be no support for your product.

Most of us do not want to spend the time and effort to try to fix the programs to work. It is cheaper and easier for us to update. Also if you produce work for other, you need to develop in a standard environment that others can easily recreate.

[jz2010]

The thing is we can't afford to upgrade from Adobe CS3, which comes with Acrobat 8.  But we don't have enough licenses to make it the default pdf viewer.  Won't acrobat reader 9 conflict with Acrobat 8?

[Bill12]

The most current version of AA8 will likely work. However, Adobe does not support that configuration and you can assume that at some time there will be something to fail and it is likely due to this support issue. If it works for you, then that should be fine -- just don't be surprised if at some point it seems broken.

[gkaiseril]

Download Windows XP Mode will provie XP compatibility to Windows 7.

[ouboguoji]

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

[jrfendrick]

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]

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

[jrfendrick]

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.