SMART Notebook 19.0 - Slow opening PDFs

[CHiLL]

We recently upgraded our version of SMART Notebook from our licensed 11.4 to the free 19.0 version. However we've noticed that since then, PDFs have been incredibly slow to open, taking approximately 60 seconds. If Adobe Reader is opened from the Start Menu, it opens instantly. However loading PDFs directly from Explorer is slow. I initially thought it was our version of Adobe Reader causing the issue, so I upgraded to 2019.012.20036 (from 2019.010.20098) but the problem still existed.

 

After some Googling I found a thread on the Adobe support forum from May 2019. Someone posted in their that they found that their slowness was caused by a plugin that's installed by SMART called SMARTPlugin.api (located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\plug_ins). Removing this plugin from the directory instantly improves Adobe Reader to it's snappy opening. The poster on the Adobe forum said that removing the plugin broke some functionality, though I don't know what functionality and I haven't tested that yet.

 

I've raised a case with SMART regarding this and will post updates accordingly, but I wanted to share it on here in case anyone else comes across this issue.

Edited September 24, 2019 by CHiLL

[glen_j]

We've had the same issue, and removed the plugin, I haven't had any complaints of anything being broken. I would be interested if you get a reply from SMART with another solution.

[CHiLL]

We've had the same issue, and removed the plugin, I haven't had any complaints of anything being broken. I would be interested if you get a reply from SMART with another solution.

Good to hear. How did you remove the plugin? I was thinking of a GPP delete file item.

[glen_j]

Yes we used GPP to delete the file.

[DBazeley95]

I had the same issue and completed following;

 

Open Acrobat Reader > Click Edit > Preferences > General > untick Show Online storage when opening files > untick Show Online storage when saving files > finally tick Use only certified plug-ins

[CHiLL]

I had the same issue and completed following;

 

Open Acrobat Reader > Click Edit > Preferences > General > untick Show Online storage when opening files > untick Show Online storage when saving files > finally tick Use only certified plug-ins

Did you find out what registry value changed for that, because I'd have to do that change en-mass.

[DBazeley95]

Unfortunately not as I was only working on one affected machine.

[CHiLL]

I've had a response from SMART:

But, first to answer your question about deleting our plugin in the Adobe folder, while this will not affect your SMART Notebook installation but it will likely prevent from using SMART Ink tools inside Adobe products.

 

Corrective action/troubleshooting:

 

For temporary fix of the issue, disable a Security setting in Adobe as per steps below.

Open Acrobat Reader DC

Go to Edit -> Preferences

Go to "Security (Enhanced)"

Uncheck the box called "Run in AppContainer"

Restart Acrobat

 

Permanent Fix for this issue will be available in next release of SMART Ink 5.6, expected to be released with full SLS bundle, later this month.

I've asked if there's a way to deploy this fix via GPO or registry fix and waiting for a response.

[DBazeley95]

There is a registry key for this setting:

for "Show Online storage when saving files"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\bToggleCustomSaveExperience

for "Show Online storage when opening files"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\bToggleCustomOpenExperience

Both need to be created, they are a reg_dword and setting them to 1 will disable this functionality.

Information was taken and adapted from; https://superuser.com/questions/1082516/disable-new-save-as-popup-in-adobe-reader-dc

[CHiLL]

There is a registry key for this setting:

for "Show Online storage when saving files"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\bToggleCustomSaveExperience

for "Show Online storage when opening files"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\bToggleCustomOpenExperience

Both need to be created, they are a reg_dword and setting them to 1 will disable this functionality.

Information was taken and adapted from; https://superuser.com/questions/1082516/disable-new-save-as-popup-in-adobe-reader-dc

Thanks for the reply, but that looks like it's for a different issue.

 

I did find a reg fix for it, but I'd forgotten to post here:

 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\DC\Priviledged
Value type: DWORD
Value data: 0

[DBazeley95]

The original article was for a different issue but helped with ours so just wanted to share to help. I will also try your Registry entry to see if that helps things here thanks.