Adobe Acrobat Toolbar Worse than Malware? 504
Phr3n3tik writes "Adobe Acrobat has long included a toolbar plugin to automate PDF Making from Office Products. Those who found the toolbar an eyesore, or just used it infrequently could always hide it from view. Not so in their new versions, (6, and 7 apparently.) Their new take on the PDFMaker toolbar is getting some users riled up, since it is harder to Move/Hide/Delete/Uninstall this new toolbar than many forms of malware!"
Simple answer: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Simple answer: (Score:5, Insightful)
No so simple, my friend.
Re:Simple answer: (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Simple answer: (Score:2, Funny)
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
OT i know, and not to nitpick, but that was actually Yoda.
Now the real question is, do you ALSO get more responses related to your sig than your comments (like me?)
Re:Simple answer: (Score:3, Funny)
Unless he's talking about a different Dr. Spock [wikipedia.org], for whom "Do or do not, there is no try" might be referring to raising children.
Re:Simple answer: (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Simple answer: (Score:4, Funny)
No, (Score:3, Funny)
"By Grapthar's Hammer, avenged you shall be!"
Re:No, (Score:4, Funny)
not so simple (Score:4, Informative)
Re:not so simple (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:not so simple (Score:4, Informative)
Re:not so simple (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:not so simple (Score:3, Insightful)
However, since Acrobat 6 runs like a bloated pig I only use it when preview won't work.
Obligatory.... (Score:4, Informative)
For those that don't know... it's a windows printer driver that makes PDFs of your document when you print to it... very handy.
Re:Obligatory.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Obligatory.... (Score:3, Informative)
Where is the line... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Where is the line... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Where is the line... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Where is the line... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Where is the line... (Score:3, Insightful)
Frankly I think anything that doesn't provide an easy means of uninstalling should be considered malware. And even if you don't consider it malware for the fact it won't uninstall, it's a pain in the neck when you try to hide the toolbar and it reappears each time you start word, or it positions itself wherever the hell it likes.
And another gripe with Acrobat is that it wants to leave a service running all the time. I might create a PDF once every three months. Why should I need a service running in the b
WILL you say that I am mad? (Score:5, Funny)
Oh no no no... it does plenty of things.
Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work! I was never kinder to the registry during the whole week before I killed it. And every night about midnight I turned on the back door and opened it oh, so gently! And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my edits, I put in a dark comment, commented so that no bits came out, and then I thrust in my command. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly, very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the backups. It took me an hour to place my whole script within the opening so far that I could see the library as it lay within its folder. Ha! Would a madman have been so wise as this? And then when my script was well in the folder I executed it cautiously -- oh, so cautiously -- cautiously (for the hard drive creaked), I launched it just so much that a single thin electron fell upon the vulture toolbar. And this I did for seven long nights, every night just at midnight, but I found the toolbar always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work, for it was not the toolbar that vexed me but this Evil Icon. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into my applications and spoke courageously to them, calling them by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how they had passed the night. So you see it would have been a very profound program, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon the toolbar while it slept.
I had my head in, and was about to open the folder, when my pinky slipped upon the enter key, and the program sprang up in the toolbar, crying out, "MAKE PDF?" And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses? With a loud yell, I threw open the script and leaped into the registry. It err'd once -- once only. In an instant I dragged it to the trash, and emptied it quickly. I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done.
Yet, upon the next reopening, first and formost it mocks me. It was open, wide, wide open, and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness -- all a dull grey with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones, but I could see nothing else of document's font or margin, for I had directed my sight as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot.
I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury, but the toolbar remained. O God! what COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and bounced upon my cube, but the toolbar arose over all applications and continually increased. It spawned over -- over -- over! And still the office chatted pleasantly , and smiled. Was it possible they saw not? Almighty God! -- no, no? Adobe saw! -- Adobe suspected! -- Adobe KNEW! -- they were making a mockery of my horror! -- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those hypocritical responses no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! -- and now -- again -- hark! louder! louder! louder! LOUDER! --
"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the registry! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous icon!"
With profound apolgies to Poe, this is the truth of that toolbar.
Yes it is malware (Score:3, Informative)
Of course I don't need it so much now that I've switched to OpenOffice anyway.
Re:Where is the line... (Score:5, Funny)
Not just 6 and 7 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not just 6 and 7 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not just 6 and 7 (Score:3, Informative)
Versions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Versions (Score:2)
Re:Versions (Score:3)
5 was causing IE to crash every time I closed an IE window that had a PDF in it.
I removed 5 at work and 6 at home, installed 7 in both locations, and have been much happier. It's far more responsive and seems to work better overall.
Just make sure you do the Custom install so you don't get the junk you don't want.
Who cares? (Score:3, Informative)
btw a good free pdf creatore for windows.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcrea
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
OpenOffice.org [nyud.net]
Just use the export-to-PDF button.
Re:Who cares? (Score:4, Funny)
Admittedly, that's not a fortune but it's a bigger bottom-line benefit than I've ever gotten from a "Bill Gates Says Lunix Isn't As Good As Windows" or "Open Letter From Darl McBride Responding To Open Letter From Groklaw To Darl McBride" story.
Subject misleading... (Score:3, Insightful)
That is a kind of malware (Score:4, Insightful)
What is wrong with complying to "uninstall" standards? Or better yet have a checkbox when it runs that tells it to scram or to never pop-up or run again?
Re:That is a kind of malware (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:That is a kind of malware (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That is a kind of malware (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That is a kind of malware (Score:4, Funny)
If I have to reinstall my OS... (Score:3, Insightful)
Also why I don't use symantec products- one too many command line hunt-and-kills for my liking.
Is this news? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Is this news? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Is this news? (Score:3, Informative)
How to remove... (Score:5, Informative)
Instructions [gmayor.com]
Worked for me!
OS X (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:OS X (Score:2)
Openoffice too (Score:3, Informative)
Acrobat uses (Score:3, Informative)
That's essentially every newspaper and magazine with a circulation of 40,000 and up.
And most of those publications use Macs for the final pagination & printing, yet still purchase Acrobat for the fine-tuning features of Distiller.
Also, Acrobat allows you to set document security attributes that OpenOffice.org's "Export to PDF" and Mac OS X's native "Save as PDF" don't support.
Re:OS X (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, OSX PDFs aren't print quality... They're low resolution and the colors get wacky. If you're dealing with graphics that are going to be printed you need to export the PDF from Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark etc., not simply hit the "print" button.
Not that OSX PDF creation isn't a Godsend... I use it all the time, for example it's a great way to save a web page. But it doesn't replace the higher-end document creation programs.
Re:OS X (Score:4, Informative)
Puh-leaze. Instead of spending money on Apple's overpriced wares, just use one of the many free alternatives [google.com], available on all of your favorite platforms.
Zapping the toolbar in OS.X (Score:3, Interesting)
If you have any tr
OT: Kinkos Internet Policy (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparently Kinkos computer policy is to universally ban any directory listings (like "http://www.localisp.com/~someuser/transferfiles/ " , with no index.html in there) or direct links to PDFs (possibly other files) not referred from an HTML page (like typing "http://www.localisp.com/~someuser/transferfiles/m ypaper.pdf" direc
Re:Print-to-PDF is an unexpected feature (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:OS X (Score:3, Insightful)
The PDF model was chosen to replace the Display Postscript model used by NeXT, which would definitely have required an Adobe license.
Worse than malware? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Worse than malware? (Score:5, Informative)
I actually would not mind this toolbar being there. I even used it occasionally. But this thing does not behave like all the other tool bars. Turn it off or move it, restart program and Bam, there it is right back on the top row of toolbars pushing all the others down one line and reducing my view of the document.
It is a very annoying POS, so I just uninstalled it.
Re:Worse than malware? (Score:3, Informative)
OT, but I have to say this. Excel has problems. I hate the reviewing toolbar. I just don't use it. It takes up valuable real estate. Whenever I open up a .xls that was saved by somebody who had the reviewing toolbar turned on (which is 98% of the rest of the world), the toolbar appears again, completely overriding my settings until I turn the toolbar off again. Fricking POS.
Obligatory Mac elitist response (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory Mac elitist response response (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Mac elitist response response (Score:3, Insightful)
A complete noob trying to save his spreadsheet might be a bit annoyed if he tried the new "acrobat" spreadsheet format, just to find all of his formulas blown away
So having it as a "print" option makes more sense than a "save" option.
Obligatory PC elitist reponse to Mac elitist (Score:5, Funny)
Would that be with the right or left mouse button?
Obligatory Unix Guru reponse to PC Elitist (Score:3, Funny)
What's a mouse?
Version 5 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Version 5 (Score:4, Insightful)
If you chose to install it... (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, it really shouldn't be this difficult to remove valid programs - MS should really step in here and mandate a total-removal tool. Something that wipes ALL THE BLOODY FILES and icons from the HDD.
Of course, unless its IE, MS has never really believed in standards for the good of the end user - just for the good of the bottom line (WMA anyone???)
Maybe it's just me but... (Score:2, Informative)
So... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So... (Score:5, Funny)
BUFFERING: 8%, 86%, 98%
thatttttt Adobe really had to stoop to thes...
BUFFERING: 12%, 36%, 76%, 95%
eeee kind of business practices. They should really know bett...
BUFFERING: 36%, 45%, 45%, 45%... Connection to host lost. Would you like to upgrade to RealPlayer Gold(TM)?
Had the problem here as well... (Score:2)
We have licenses for 7.0 standard, but I've uninstalled and gone back to just reader. But I had to do a complete reinstall to get rid of entirely. (didn't hurt that I have a new laptop so... heh)
Good news though: Reader does not do the plugin stuff, nor does it do it on my Solaris workstation.
Easy fix (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Easy fix (Score:3, Insightful)
But, AFAIK, to get new toolbars to pop up, you have to copy files to the hard drive. If somebody else already has the ability to copy stuff to the hard drive, then you have worse things to worry about than Office toolbars.
It is sort of like Fort Knox worrying that somebody might break in and steal office supplies
OS X (Score:4, Informative)
Adobe or Microsoft? (Score:3, Interesting)
Or maybe it was a mistake to allow Microsoft to get away with that?
Adobe-Yahoo customer apathy connection (Score:3, Informative)
I hate the way Acrobat loads in my browser window when I click a link to a PDF file, instead of simply opening Acrobat outside of my browser window. I end up with half the screen taken up by toolbars. It's ridiculous.
Re:Adobe-Yahoo customer apathy connection (Score:3, Interesting)
Someone else mentioned that Acrobat products after 5 have sucked bad and from what I've seen I'd have to agree.
This is really getting out of hand, next thing you know there'll be sneakwrap / EU
It's quite simple. (Score:5, Funny)
Adobe is clearly filling a market need with their product. As pioneers they can, of course, charge premium rates for their commercial-grade Malware. They have to recoup the costs of conducting psychological studies on the most brain-corroding toolbar scheme imaginable. These things cost money, you know. It is wholly unreasonable to ask Adobe to develop such brain-mangling software and shoulder the research costs involved.
I'm confused (Score:4, Insightful)
If does, then I understand whining about it. Not otherwise.
Adobe = Malware? Pshaw! (Score:5, Funny)
It's About the User Interface (Score:5, Insightful)
But let's face it, not being able to customize your own personal environment can be pretty frustrating.
Imagine having a stack of papers on your desk that could never be removed, no matter what you did. Dang man. That'd drive me nuts!
BTW, this discussion of permanent toolbars kind of reminds me of the invasive qualities of AOL. Ever try to get that junk off your PC? It's worse than a virus!
Ok, so I'm irritated (Score:2)
But to call this malware is really rather much. Can't posters and editors make a little more effort to do more than whine?
how about don't install it (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.primopdf.com
works great. one time it will ask you for personal info after you make like 25 pdfs, but you can just push the cancel button if you don't want to give them any statistical information. It appears as a printer on your computer. I use it, it's great.
Solution (Score:5, Informative)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\STARTUP
That will get rid of it in all your Office apps including Outlook.
PDF Creation Tools (Score:2)
Well, what's the difference between using a tool like Adobe Acrobat and printing to a PostScript file and converting that *.ps file into a PDF document? Unless you need features such as links between the documents, for many uses, the PostScript -> PDF route is a much easier route. Besides, there are plenty of alternatives to converting Office files directly to PDFs, too, and I bet you that some of them have some of those extra capabilities that PDFs provide, too.
Well, it doesn't really solve the toolb
Here's how to turn it off: (Score:5, Informative)
Edit>Preferences>Startup>Show Messages and automatically update
The banner goes away, and, as a bonus, if you have auto-update disabled, the stupid app stops tickling the network too.
C'mon gentlemen, this is not worth a slashdot article. Next time start your engines before flooring the pedal.
Next up (Score:5, Funny)
Adobe hasn't played nice with Windows for years (Score:4, Insightful)
* other offenders: Macromedia, Autodesk products. You realy notice when a program requires your UI neural pathways to shift gears.
Adobe on how to completely uninstall toolbar: (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/328399.html
For Mac:
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/329307.html
Annoying, but at least they show you how to get around the reappear/reinstall/undeletable garbage the toolbar usually subjects you to.
Former Adobe Technical Support rep here. (Score:4, Informative)
(posting anonymously to save my ass)
This article is 100% bullshit.
If you actually search [adobe.com] the support documents, you can find instructions [adobe.com] for removing PDFMaker. Or, if you're doing a first-time installation, you can just do a custom installation and *gasp* tell it not to install PDFMaker to begin with!
What made version 6.0 and 7.0 annoying is the "self-heal" feature that would put the PDFMaker files back after you deleted them. However, if you use the custom install approach, the self-heal will not put PDFmaker back.
Trivia: I personally have spoken with people who either want PDFMaker gone or want it back. The latter grossly outnumber the former.
Adobe Reader v7.0 for Linux/UNIX (Score:3, Interesting)
ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/7x/7.
I don't think this port has the toolbar though. I don't remember and cannot check from work.
Stupid formatting (space) (Score:3, Informative)
web browser toolbars the new systray icons? (Score:5, Funny)
New hotness: programs that have a web browser toolbar you can't uninstall.
Too integrated (Score:4, Informative)
Recent versions of Acrobat reader and writer which have come with other Adobe products and which I use for testing are really annoying. They hook into Word. They hook into Safari. They integrate with numerous apps by adding buttons and toolbars. It is really bothersome. On OS X, why do I need an extra button in Word That tries to sell me Acrobat Writer. It's not like Word on OS X can't already make PDFs. Also, Acrobat reader is much slower than Preview and grinds the browser to a halt while trying to open PDFs inline. That is half the reason PDFs suck so badly on Windows. Worse yet, recent version of reader on OS X silently fail to open some PDFs. Adobe needs to get their act together.
Adobe Reader? Never install it... use Foxit (Score:3, Insightful)
bad, but not fatal (Score:3, Informative)
The program installs things you specifically exclude. That is bad. The effect on end users is somewhere between confusing and aggravating. But at a support level, we've had very good luck removing the templates before creating workstation images, and we've been able to mostly avoid the problems as a result.
Toolbars are very easy to remove (Score:5, Informative)
Yes the visio version of the bar is right PITA.
The toolbars are dead easy to remove.
Acrobat = slow and evil (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:If it looks like malware... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:yeah so? (Score:3)
Re:Apple not so saintly given QuickTime task (Score:3, Informative)
You don't. Go install QuickTime Alternative [hccnet.nl] instead.
Schwab