Participant

Question

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC 64-bit edition

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
May 3, 2017
8 replies
86669 views

Is there a 64-bit edition of Adobe Acrobat Reader DC to install on Windows 7 64-bit , or Windows 10 64-bit ?

Participant

Adobe has now released a 64-bit version. The update is dated February 9, 2021. It's version 21.001.20135. It's currently limited to three countries: Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Presumably it will be extended to the US and Canada later this year.

Contrary to the naysayers here, Adobe says that moving to 64-bit makes the app more responsive and enables it to more efficiently handle multiple large files. It is also claims more "robust performance", whatever that means (launch speed? interaction speed?)

Link: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/whats-new.html

Screenshot below:

ls_rbls

Community Expert

That is actually very good news (in my opinion).

Tahnk you for updating this old thread.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

Hi,

++Ading to this old thread, see this other discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/how-do-i-change-from-32-bit-to-64-bit/m-p/10896844?page=1#M23...

Now you can download and install the new MS Edge Browser and enable the Adobe Acrobat extension in it.

The new MS Edge browser for Windows 10 is basically replica of a Chrome web browser but with the coolest ability to install 64bit extension from the Google Playstore and other stores as well.

To clarify, there was a brief period where older web browsers used to support Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI).

NPAPI, which dates back to 1995, became a standard to develop plugins and it was adopted by many web browsers. Due to poor sandboxing secuirty, specifically in 32bit browsers, it was disontinued.

The old Acrobat extension used to work as an Adobe Acrobat PDF Maker plugin, which used to allow users to access a PDF via web browser and save it as Acrobat PDF directly from the browser.

The family of modern web browsers (64bit), however, support the Adobe Acrobat extension but it works differently.

It will simply not allow to edit and reproduce a PDF direclty from the browser into an Acrobat PDF. You will be able to view a PDF directly in the browser but with an added option. iOnly if the user clicks on the popup "Open in Acrobat" when the extension is enabled, then the document will open up natively in Acrobat or Reader .

There is an added benefit to this approach though.

In the event that the browser's Enhanced Protected Mode fails to prevent a URL from launching malicious code injections, the PDF will remain secured, and so will be your computer. There is a tighter integration of safety features and restrictions when Acrobat and Reader are used with Protected Mode, Enhanced Security sandboxing, and/or Proteted View enabled.

This restrictive integrations are not found even in the most secured web browsers available to date.

So we can look at it as a very smart fall-back plan. And the more I read and learn about it, the more I fall in love with the restrictive actions provided in these two products alone.

That said, YES you can install the Adobe Acrobat extension in MS Edge and not even worry about which browser is the default web browser anymore; with this extension enabled it allows the user to perform a single click to open a PDF from a URL that is currently viewed in MS Edge in Acrobat or Reader.

And this is the closest that you can get to a 64bit Acrobat+Windows+web browser workflow in 2020.

See my slides to prove how the correct answer would've look like if this question was asked back in 2017 with the improvements that are available to us today:

ls_rbls

Community Expert

++++There is an error in the second slide that I posted (from top to bottom).

I meant to say that the new MS Edge browser allows to install extensions from other stores, such as Chrome Web Store, not Google Playstore.

ProDesignTools

Community Expert

More information from Adobe staff is given in this related Forums post:

How do I change from 32-bit to 64-bit?

D

djbillyd1

Participating Frequently

It's funny reading posts from people who think that x64 in AARDC is ridiculous. But my experience is just like xochj and, Onesolo. To think that the "Correct answer" is really an answer at all, is mind boggling. That's a copout! "There is no way for Adobe to put this back so far as I know, FireFox and Chrome don't want it. There is a 64-bit control for IE which works in IE, but not Edge, because Microsoft don't allow add-ins"..., is as ridiculous as the idea NOT to build a x64 bit version. Windows 10 is forever "updating", and apps that are not "updating" as well, simply don't work right. This Acrobat Reader is almost useless in the x32 bit version when Windows 10, x64, updates. You simply cannot use it. It freezes into "Not Responding" whenever you open the "Tools" tab. NOT the EDGE, IE, Chrome, Firefox, version. Just the plain, Windows 10 x64 version.

So, you need to go back and find another "reason", because that "excuse" is NOT an answer.

A

Anonymous

I just ran into the limit due to this tabbed view, I have many PDFs I use all the time for my development work for the specs I need to follow or research, some are hundreds of pages.

But since acrobat puts them all into a single 32 bit process, looking for a setting to change to open each in it's own process. to hopefully solve this. (Found it: You can disable tabs via Edit - Preferences - General - Uncheck "Open documents as new tabs in the same window (requires relaunch))

I'm run into running out of acrobat memory. I have 32 GB RAM but 32 bit is limited to 4 GB and also in case people don't know 32bit is emulated into 64 which is why issues running 32 bit apps on 64 bits windows causes issues.

Edit 1: I was to find the open for not using tabbed view and list it.

Edit 2: It opens separate windows (Great!) but only has 2 processes in task manager, so I expect the same issue.

xochj

Participant

Hi,

When you install the Adobe Reader DC for the first time, it prompts the user to make this program the default to handle PDF files and use file explorer.

Due to the file explorer being dependent on the security zones settings of Internet Explorer you'll probably have to emable Enhanced Protected Mode and Enhanced Protected Mode 64bit.

You'll probably don't want to disable Protected Mode and Security Enhanced from Reader/ Acrobat, but we know this layer of 32bit security may conflict.

To work around this problem you need to use Enterprise Mode for your browser accessing files in your Intranet, and run it in an app container using GPO.

It involves enabling IIS and other configurations so it is not a simple task. Micrososft enabled this Enterprise Mode option as a transition for users to eventually migrate to a 64bit ideal world.

So by using this method, even though it works, is like rolling back to a less secure en environment.

On the other side of the coin, I can't stress enough in my posts, that the new Ms Edge browser (64bit only) allows to enable and use the new Adobe Acrobat extension.

That is an entire 64 bit solution right there.

With this new browser and the Acrobat extension enabled, you can actually continue to view the PDF file in your 64 bit browser and also open it directly in your Acrobat Pro DC/Reader DC with a single click using the extension (as long as the Acrobat or Reader have the default PDF ownership in windows).

The beauty of this workflow is that you can keep Protected Mode and Security Enhanced enabled in your Acrobat/Reader.

+++ I mean, am I the only onle reading news and trying these work arounds successfully in my crappo old Lenovo and MacBook (2010) computers?

I would love to use workarounds; however, corporate restrictions on my machines (I work with too many ITAR Drawings) do not allow me to try what I can on my personal machines.

I did find an excellent solution in PDF Architect 7 (64-bit). It never lags, the UI seems as if it was taken directly from MS Word 365, which may not be good for some, but I use 64-bit Word as my main writing tool.

It is stable under the most demanding use, it has never frozen, their customer support is fast, and they actually address user concerns in the next revision/release.

I’ve found it’s search/replace, commenting/highlighting, text selection, and OCR features to be superior to Acrobat. And the program is $89 for a yearly, always updated program license (or $135 for a lifetime w/out upgrades) to the complete/pro + OCR program. ($20 less for no OCR, another $20 less for standard version that retains full editing,conversion, page organization/insertion, etc.)

I'll keep using Adobe for Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere, but I can't recommend PDF Architect 7 enough.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

There are quite a few folk using Reader on 64 bit systems these days, and I think if everyone was seeing this they would have mentioned it. So your real problem probably has a specific and very different cause. What do you mean by "problem loading" exactly?

xochj

Participant

It seems similar to the problem with my machine/software/version/etc. I am using Windows 10 Pro (64-bit of course) and Adobe Acrobat Pro will freeze for up to 30 seconds each time a dialogue box is opened, or an additional file is opened. About half the time, a second or third opened file will not load for at least 2 minutes, sometimes taking up to 20 minutes. Restarts are ineffective. (I had a problem with MS Word 32-bit version - it was only able to use 2gb of memory, but I updated to a 64-bit version; it can now use all the RAM it needs.)

Any thoughts on the specific and different cause?

Here are the machine specs:

Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2637 v4 @ 3.50GHz, 3501 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 32.0 GB

Total Virtual Memory 36.7 GB

Adapter Type Quadro P4000, NVIDIA compatible

Adapter RAM (1,048,576) bytes

T

TorontoCat

Participating Frequently

I too had freezing issues in Acrobat Reader DC 32 bit. After various attempts to resolve, including uninstall and re-install, I finally hit upon trying compatibility.

Try this, it worked for me.

C:/Program files (x86)/Adobe/Acrobat Reader DC/Reader/

find AcroRd32

Right click

Properties

Run Compatibilty Troubleshooter

Good luck....

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

64 vs 32 bit is not the reason you have no browser plug-in. FireFox and Chrome removed support for Adobe PDF plug-ins, both 32-bit and 64-bit. There is no way for Adobe to put this back so far as I know, FireFox and Chrome don't want it. There is a 64-bit control for IE which works in IE, but not Edge, because Microsoft don't allow add-ins.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

There is only one advantage of 64-bit apps on Windows, so far as I can see. All the rest is marketing junk.

O

Onesolo

Participating Frequently

There is all advantages to have this in x64.

For me the most important is that when using a browser x64, it's what I use now and most of users, there is no x64 plugin compatible for Firefox or Chrome compatible like it use have for x32 versions... I don't like the built in plugin view in Firefox or Chrome (lack of many options for instance), nor do I like to open pdf in Acrobat outside the browser, that makes me open another window program.

I like to let pdfs stay inside a tab in Firefox!!!