In my work as a Technical Author I use Acrobat Pro v7. Recently, an
overseas reader reported an issue reading one of our documents and
asked me to investigate. Assuming he is using Adobe Reader v8 (a
company standard) I tried running that, only to find Acrobat Pro v7
running instead. No matter how I try to run Acrobat Reader v8, Acrobat
Pro v7 always runs instead. I appear to be totally unable to
investigate his issues on my own PC. In the end I had to use a local
reader's PC for my tests. In future, how can I guarantee to run
Acrobat Reader v8 on my own PC?

Douglas <mummerx@gmail.com> wrote in news:5047121f-3010-48da-8719-
c864883372c6@m1g2000yqo.googlegroups.com:
> In my work as a Technical Author I use Acrobat Pro v7. Recently, an
> overseas reader reported an issue reading one of our documents and
> asked me to investigate. Assuming he is using Adobe Reader v8 (a
> company standard) I tried running that, only to find Acrobat Pro v7
> running instead. No matter how I try to run Acrobat Reader v8, Acrobat
> Pro v7 always runs instead. I appear to be totally unable to
> investigate his issues on my own PC. In the end I had to use a local
> reader's PC for my tests. In future, how can I guarantee to run
> Acrobat Reader v8 on my own PC?

I have been able to run Acrobat and Reader on a same PC. I don't know why 
you can't but I suspect this: I think Acrobat runs some kind of launch 
speed-up program when Windows boots. That may contain components that 
cause Acrobat to already be partly loaded when you click Reader's icon. 
But removing those programs just might fix things (I always remove that 
kind of programs from other manufacturers too). The bad news is, I don't 
know where Acrobat installs them - but when you know what to look for you 
should be able to find them (if they are there...).




 

"Douglas" <mummerx@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:5047121f-3010-48da-8719-c864883372c6@m1g2000yqo.googlegroups.com...
> In my work as a Technical Author I use Acrobat Pro v7. Recently, an
> overseas reader reported an issue reading one of our documents and
> asked me to investigate. Assuming he is using Adobe Reader v8 (a
> company standard) I tried running that, only to find Acrobat Pro v7
> running instead. No matter how I try to run Acrobat Reader v8, Acrobat
> Pro v7 always runs instead. I appear to be totally unable to
> investigate his issues on my own PC. In the end I had to use a local
> reader's PC for my tests. In future, how can I guarantee to run
> Acrobat Reader v8 on my own PC?

Hi, I have both Reader and Acrobat Pro myself, and have the opposite 
problem. When I specifically want one or the other I open the application 
(Reader or Pro) and manually drag the pdf file into it.

hth,
--Tim Arnold

@Matti Vuori

> I have been able to run Acrobat and Reader on a same PC. I don't know why
> you can't but I suspect this: I think Acrobat runs some kind of launch
> speed-up program when Windows boots.

Thanks for the "heads up" Matti. Thanks to your hint, I have found ...
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Adobe
Acrobat Speed Launcher

That looks a likely suspect! I will try deleting it (I guess I'll have
to reboot too) and will report back what happens ...
"soon" (tomorrow?).
-- Douglas

On Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:32:40 -0400, Douglas <mummerx@gmail.com> wrote:

> @Matti Vuori
>
>> I have been able to run Acrobat and Reader on a same PC. I don't know why
>> you can't but I suspect this: I think Acrobat runs some kind of launch
>> speed-up program when Windows boots.
>
> Thanks for the "heads up" Matti. Thanks to your hint, I have found ...
> C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\Adobe
> Acrobat Speed Launcher
>
> That looks a likely suspect! I will try deleting it (I guess I'll have
> to reboot too) and will report back what happens ...
> "soon" (tomorrow?).
> -- Douglas

Another approach or two, if your environment is a Windows one:

(i) try right-clicking the PDF doc in question, choosing "Open with ...",
  and selecting the PDF utility you prefer for this occasion; or

(ii) find the PDF utility you prefer for this occasion amongst your
  Program Files, run it, and use its file menu to open the PDF doc you
  want to examine.

Hopefully one of these approaches will work for you. Cheers,

-- tlvp
-- 
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP

On 9/8/2010 6:36 AM, Douglas wrote:
> In my work as a Technical Author I use Acrobat Pro v7. Recently, an
> overseas reader reported an issue reading one of our documents and
> asked me to investigate. Assuming he is using Adobe Reader v8 (a
> company standard) I tried running that, only to find Acrobat Pro v7
> running instead. No matter how I try to run Acrobat Reader v8, Acrobat
> Pro v7 always runs instead. I appear to be totally unable to
> investigate his issues on my own PC. In the end I had to use a local
> reader's PC for my tests. In future, how can I guarantee to run
> Acrobat Reader v8 on my own PC?

As another person has posted, Adobe seems to use a 'starter' which first
checks to see if Acrobat or Reader is already open.  If so then it Adobe
uses which ever application is already open.

If I have Acrobat Pro open and I try to open Reader, then I simply get Pro instead.
Likewise if I have Read open and I try to open Pro then I get Reader instead.

The solution is to make sure that you have Pro closed before you try to open
Reader.

(Tested on my system with WinXP Pro, Acrobat Pro 7 and Reader 9.)


Dan

Thanks to everyone who has made suggestions. Very grateful. I'll now
answer point by point ...

@ Matti - Thanks, you have hit on the cause, and I will consider what
to do about the startup installer later (when time allows).

@ tlvp - Re: solution (i) - see summary below.

@ Tim & @ tlvp (solution ii) - Any & every attempt to run Reader v8
resulted in Pro v7 running, even if I double clicked Acroread32.exe.

@ Dan - I never had any Adobe product open (not in terms of any
obvious window that I could close).

Summary:
From Matti's lead, I deleted Acrobat.exe from the running process list
(using Windows' Task Manager). But I left Acrotray.exe running after
reading http://www.pcreview.co.uk/startup/ACROTRAY.EXE.php. I can now
run Reader v8 directly or via "Open with..." successfully. I can now
make progress wirth my investigation - hooray!!!

Yes, I know ... this is only a work around and not a solution. I'll
deal with my user first, then decide later what solution works best
for me. Many thanks everyone. Group problem solving at its best!  :)
-- Douglas

On Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:20:14 -0400, Douglas <mummerx@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks to everyone who has made suggestions. Very grateful. I'll now
> answer point by point ...
>
> @ Matti - Thanks, you have hit on the cause, and I will consider what
> to do about the startup installer later (when time allows).
>
> @ tlvp - Re: solution (i) - see summary below.
>
> @ Tim & @ tlvp (solution ii) - Any & every attempt to run Reader v8
> resulted in Pro v7 running, even if I double clicked Acroread32.exe.
>
> @ Dan - I never had any Adobe product open (not in terms of any
> obvious window that I could close).
>
> Summary:
> From Matti's lead, I deleted Acrobat.exe from the running process list
> (using Windows' Task Manager). But I left Acrotray.exe running after
> reading http://www.pcreview.co.uk/startup/ACROTRAY.EXE.php. I can now
> run Reader v8 directly or via "Open with..." successfully. I can now
> make progress wirth my investigation - hooray!!!
>
> Yes, I know ... this is only a work around and not a solution. I'll
> deal with my user first, then decide later what solution works best
> for me. Many thanks everyone. Group problem solving at its best!  :)
> -- Douglas

Good show, Douglas.

Cheers, -- tlvp
-- 
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP

Use task manager to make sure the WRONG Adobe product is COMPLETELY 
closed before you try to open the Adobe product you want to use.