Tech Tip of The Day – Faster PDF Viewing

One thing that always bothers me on most of the computers we service and repair is the great system resource hog nearly everyone has installed on their Windows Computer – good old Adobe PDF Viewer. From West Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Beverly Hills on to New York City, Adobe has spread its tentacles deep into the core of computers everywhere. Now while we’re all grateful for the PDF format, I’m going to tell you about a better way to view these files.

There are a couple of problems with Adobe’s viewer that are slowing you down. First, it’s loaded with add-ins that make it far too slow to load. I mean, how many times have you clicked on a PDF link in your browser only to face a seemingly endless wait while it loads? Second, it loads at least two memory-resident programs at startup, it’s “speed launcher” and “updater.” Well, the speed launcher is a bit of a misnomer since I can’t seem to find it making anything faster. The updater is one of the most persistent, annoying update applications out there. It will absolutely hound you to the ends of the Earth until you agree to install the update. If there are multiple updates available, you have to install each individually, reboot, and install the next one or face the consequences of equally annoying “UPDATE ME” messages.

So what are your options? Well I suppose you can refuse to stop viewing PDF files altogether. But if that’s not realistic, I’ve got the solution for you: Foxit Software’s Foxit PDF Reader: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

Foxit Reader is just like Adobe Acrobat Reader minus the two aforementioned problems. So in a nutshell, it loads fast. Superfast. On an average system, it’s pretty much instant. On a superfast system, it’ll open before you even click on it. Did you know superfast was an actual word? Well according to my spell checker it is anyway – twice it let it pass.

And the price for Foxit Reader is right. A whopping $0, zip, zilch, nada. It’s free just like its Adobe counterpart. Did I mention it was faster? And it doesn’t load any annoying memory hogging startup programs or updater applications? I guess I can say I’m a fan.

They’ve also got commercial products, so if you need an economical way to create PDF files, their PDF Creator is as cheap as $30 – about the best price for a PDF authoring software available.

Give Foxit Reader a shot. You’ll like it, I Promise. Unless you like overly persistent update messages or you plan your bathroom breaks around opening PDF files.

-Coming at you from the 90046, Stan

Labels: computer repair, computer service, tech tips, windows

posted by Stan  # 6:06 PM