Adobe Reader 9.2 and 9.3 crash when started

[zx2012]

Adobe Reader 9.2 and 9.3

 

"Microsoft Visual C++ Debug Library

Runtime Error!

Program: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe

The application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information. "

 

We're using Windows XP SP 3.

 

When logged on as an administrator it works fine but for everyone else it always does the above.

[SYNACK]

Are you using redirected Appdata folders, that was the standard cause for this which I though Adobe had fixed. We gave up on Acrobat as it gets worse and worse the higher the version number.

 

Moved over to Foxit PDF reader which is about 1/7th the size 20 times as quick and does everything we need it to as well as being a MSI for easy GP deployment. I highly recommend it as it gets rid of many hassles.

 

Foxit Software - Foxit Reader for Windows

[AngryTechnician]

Yep, this is the exact symptom you get when using AppData redirection to a UNC path. Your Administrator account works because it has a local AppData path.

 

Adobe claimed that 'some changes' were made in 9.1 to try and help this, but they never fixed it. Adobe officially dropped support for redirected AppData in 9.1, because they knew full well it didn't work (it was previously supported before 9.1).

 

If you redirect to a mapped drive letter, it works, but not to UNC path. This is because one of the DLLs in Reader attempts to open a handle to the root of the AppData path at launch, which it computes by looking at everything up to and including the first \ in the path. For an AppData directory that resides on a drive (i.e. C:\Users\Joe\AppData) this comes out as C:\ and is valid, but if it's a UNC path (i.e. \\server\Users\Joe\AppData) it comes out as \, which is not a valid path. Adobe are too arrogant to put in any exception handling, so it just crashes. Premiere Elements 9 has a similar bug, FYI.

[RTFM]

We have the exact same problem with Adobe Master Collection. It hates UNC paths and simply doesnt work with them, everything has to be to mapped drives i.e. if you open a premiere pro cs4 sequence from a unc path it doesnt playback, open the exact same sequence from a mapped H drive, works fine.

 

Weird.

[Sirbendy]

We use vista here, and I had to use "set all users to run it in XPSP2 compatibility mode"

[Arthur]

Adobe claimed that 'some changes' were made in 9.1 to try and help this, but they never fixed it. Adobe officially dropped support for redirected AppData in 9.1, because they knew full well it didn't work (it was previously supported before 9.1).

I think I read somewhere Adobe are/were fixing this issue properly in Adobe Acrobat/Reader v10.0. Not sure if this will happen though given how inept their programmers are.

[PiqueABoo]

Strange.

 

I folder redirect app data and version 9.0 was broken like this (downgrade to 8.x fixed it), but I do *not* get this problem with 9.3.

[AngryTechnician]

I folder redirect app data and version 9.0 was broken like this (downgrade to 8.x fixed it), but I do *not* get this problem with 9.3.

That's interesting to hear. I have to say stopped testing for it after 9.2 since I now redirect AppData to a mapped drive, but I hadn't previously heard anything abut this changing in 9.3.

[deano]

We are thinking of rolling back to 7.0 as we have major issues when printing from 9.1 The file prints first page then stops, can print 5 or so pages and then stop or simply does nothing

[Arthur]

Personally, I wouldn't use anything older than the latest version of Adobe Reader due to the huge number of security vulnerabilities they contain. The following is what Secunia have to say about v7.0 (Link).

 

The most severe unpatched Secunia advisory affecting Adobe Reader 7.x, with all vendor patches applied, is rated Highly critical.

 

A better alternative would be PDF-XChange Viewer or FoxIt Reader. Both have .msi's available to download that make them easier to deploy. Whatever you do though, do not use the FoxIt Reader EXE installer as it will install a toolbar and change your homepage if you are not careful.

 

Out of those two PDF readers, I would choose PDFX-Change Viewer myself because it has features that would normally require you to pay extra for in FoxIt Reader. Text also seems to look a little better too (at least to my eyes).

[AngryTechnician]

Out of those two PDF readers, I would choose PDFX-Change Viewer myself because it has features that would normally require you to pay extra for in FoxIt Reader. Text also seems to look a little better too (at least to my eyes).

I have to say I was almost sold on PDFX-Change until I saw all the ugly greyed-out Pro-only menu items, and found that it didn't install an IFilter, so no previewing in Outlook. Oh well.

[Arthur]

I didn't like those Pro-only menu items either, but luckily there's an option to turn them off in the preferences (it's under the registration section). Not sure if there's an IFilter for it though.

[craigg]

That's interesting to hear. I have to say stopped testing for it after 9.2 since I now redirect AppData to a mapped drive, but I hadn't previously heard anything abut this changing in 9.3.

 

I've just noticed that you are using this method too! It works a treat!

 

I have mapped a drive to our Appdata share through GPP then redirected the appdata to the mapped drive.

 

My question is though, will this method create new appdata folders for users when they logon? Or does it require us drop a bunch of folders in by batch?

 

Cheers!

[rvdmast]

I have to say I was almost sold on PDFX-Change until I saw all the ugly greyed-out Pro-only menu items, and found that it didn't install an IFilter, so no previewing in Outlook. Oh well.

 

The PRO menu items can be hidden in the free version with a simple registry setting, which we deployed through GPP.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Registration\

create a REG_DWORD called HideProFeatures and set it to 1

 

Just this week i finally got soooo fed up with Adobe and installed PDF-XChange on all workstations, The MSI was a breeze to deploy.

I did tweak the MSI a little (remove desktop icon etc...) and set a few Group policy preferences, and an hour later all of our workstations had Adobe removed and PDF-Xchange instead. I dont consider the lack of outlook Preview a great loss.

[sted]

The PRO menu items can be hidden in the free version with a simple registry setting, which we deployed through GPP.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Registration\

create a REG_DWORD called HideProFeatures and set it to 1

 

Just this week i finally got soooo fed up with Adobe and installed PDF-XChange on all workstations, The MSI was a breeze to deploy.

I did tweak the MSI a little (remove desktop icon etc...) and set a few Group policy preferences, and an hour later all of our workstations had Adobe removed and PDF-Xchange instead. I dont consider the lack of outlook Preview a great loss.

 

ive switched (or am switching) from acrobat reader to foxit smaller and quicker v3 msis's easily 4 not looked at really as 3 does all i want

[craigg]

Haha, ive just realised that i replied to the wrong post.

 

I solved it by mapping a drive to the appdata share! All is running smoothly.

 

I just fail to see why adobe couldnt have built support in for this ages ago!

 

Cheers!

[rvdmast]

The PRO menu items can be hidden in the free version with a simple registry setting, which we deployed through GPP.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software\PDFViewer\Registration\

create a REG_DWORD called HideProFeatures and set it to 1

 

Just this week i finally got soooo fed up with Adobe and installed PDF-XChange on all workstations, The MSI was a breeze to deploy.

I did tweak the MSI a little (remove desktop icon etc...) and set a few Group policy preferences, and an hour later all of our workstations had Adobe removed and PDF-Xchange instead. I dont consider the lack of outlook Preview a great loss.

 

Oh and btw, just noticed it does have a preview in Outlook!

[goldchamp71]

If you don’t want to remove the redirected folder settings, you can just trick Adobe by modifying a registry.

HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerUser Shell FoldersAppData

This will have a value of the UNC path eg \serverusers%username%appdataroaming

Change this to c:users%username%appdataroaming

Doing it this way, you get to keep your folder redirection settings as well as tricking adobe so that it doesn’t run.

Please note that you have to make the registry changes everytime the user logs on, so you have to do it using login scripts or GPP or whatever login process you have for the users.

 

Acrobat Reader uses up CPU time