Adobe Reader 6 won't start in IE6

[Wijono]

With IE6 on WinXP Professional SP1, Adobe Acrobat 5.0.5. works perfectly all right. I can switch between "Display PDF in Browser" or not with no problem.

When I installed Adobe Reader 6.0.4. needed for digital signature, things start become weird. The setting of "Display PDF in Browser" in both Adobe do not work anymore. Regardless whether it is turned on or off, IE6 won't display any PDF file, unless Adobe Reader is running. When Adobe Reader 6 is running, clicking link to PDF file will then will display it in the browser. If Adobe Reader 6 is not running then clicking PDF link in IE6 will result "Could not find Adobe Acrobat" followed by two other error messages and end up with IE6 is closed.

I am convinced, there must be experts out there that know exactly how IE6 starts an application like Adobe Reader, plug-in? Extension? So that solution may be possible to the problem above, perhaps by tweaking the Registy?

Any suggestion will be highly appreciated.

[tap52384]

the latest version of Adobe Reader is 7.0.2 I believe...try installing that with all browsers closed

[Martin Zugec]

IE support in AR6.0 is poorly written, that is why it is recommended to disable Display PDF in Browser.

Results vary from your problem to %PDF% is not recognized etc...

I saw this problem in few companies - AR5 and AR7 works fine however.

[chilifrei64]

It seems that I to have run into the same problems and some of my clients as Martin did... I recommend doing the same.. Either dont display it in the browser or use 5.0 of 7.0

[KJxp]

the latest version of Adobe Reader is 7.0.2 I believe...try installing that with all browsers closed

Security update: 7.0.3

[Wijono]

You guys are right. Adobe Reader 7 is much better in many aspects, like speed etc., with one exception though, it is buggy for digital signature!! When we use "Windows Certificate Security" as Signing Method, then right away reopen a file after it is signed, it will say: "the document has been updated since signed", even we did nothing in between.

By the way, inspired by the setting of Adobe Reader 7, by adding following Registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Adobe\Acrobat\Exe

and set the Default to:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe

will solve my problem. I.e., clicking a PDF link in IE6 will now start Adobe Reader 6.

Meanwhile we still can work also with Adobe Acrobat 5.

Hope this will be useful for those having similar problem as mine.