Bogus Adobe Acrobat Reader update notifications?
17 Feb 2017 - Dave
Each time I open a PDF document in Acrobat Reader Adobe a warning pops up. The warning claims Acrobat Reader is out of date…etc. This is strange. I choose not to have Adobe notifications. This is an Adobe warning. I tracked it down with the SysInternals Process Explorer. It seems Adobe doesn’t respect my choices.
I visit Adobe’s website for the Reader update and choose the latest version. The warning still pops up with the latest available Adobe update. I used the Secunia PSI software checker for several years. PSI is reliable and I had no problems with it. PSI was happy with the version of Reader that Adobe complains about.
The bogus Adobe warning pops up on more than one Windows computer. It affects Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. The warning didn’t popup on my Mac but the OS X built-in Preview app handles PDFs by default. The Mac has Adobe Reader installed and out of date (due to lack of use) but there are no warnings.
I avoid opening Acrobat files on Windows. Instead I use my iPad or iPhone since they are usually near by. Gmail is great to preview Acrobat files without Adobe. I understand Google has their own Flash player in Chrome too. Adobe Flash is also a big security liability.
Adobe’s shameful bundling of crapware is another reason to use care. The Adobe download sites default to pushing extra software with updates. Make sure to uncheck stuff like McAfee, Ask toolbars, etc.
Considering costs and innocent users affected Adobe may be worse than malware creators.
UPDATE:
Adobe’s suggested update is to the same, installed version. During the installation I selected NOT to have Adobe’s notifications. Regardless of my choices Adobe installed Windows Services and Windows Schedule Tasks. The tasks check for updates. I removed the tasks and services. No means no, Adobe.