Due to a recent hard drive failure, I found myself in the predicament of rounding up and installing all the miscellaneous utilities we use. One utility in particular was troublesome, although it did inspire this article. At one time, it was called Acrobat Reader. These days it is called Adobe Reader. While the trend seems to be away from pdf(portable document format) files toward other less expensive formats, there is still a need for a pdf reader due to the abundant use of this format on the web. That requires a visit to the Adobe web site for a download session.
Over a period of time, this utility has evolved. The new features added and older ones discontinued or modified more than justify the name change. The problem lies not within the Adobe Reader program but with the evolution of the Adobe web site. Before you can even begin to down load the Adobe Reader you have to down load and install Adobe Flash. Only then do the controls on the site begin to function properly.
Once Flash is installed, you click the down load Adobe Reader button and get a screen that is suppose to allow you to opt out of down loading Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. On clicking the continue button you get an opt out screen for the Google Toolbar. Clicking the down load Adobe Reader button on this page results in the Adobe Download Manager powered by getPlus. Unfortunately, none of this appears to work well with a Vista machine and even the most patient users will find it to be an ordeal when stuck with a mere dial up connection.
I did get their fancy down load manager to work, eventually, but wound up down loading Photoshop Album Starter at the same time. This unwanted program down loaded and installed after restarting the down load time after time due to "network error". Adobe Reader was finally down loaded but would not install due to a corrupt file. Since then, attempts to down load the reader using Adobe Download Manager powered by getPlus have failed. As the automatic down load would never start I began clicking the "If it does not start, click here" link. It required lowering security settings in Internet Options before this link would work. Nearly 24 hours later, the down load is now at 22% and had started this page when line noise kicked the computer offline. What are you going to pull out when you have run out of hair?
In this screen shot, you can see that I wound up with Adobe Photoshop Album Stater Edition even though declining this download. After installing a program and finding an icon in the notification area, it is a pretty good bet that this program is going to auto start every time you turn on your computer. I have nothing against this program other than the fact that I didn't want or need it. However, it did occur to me that some may want to use this program and not have the auto start portion running in the background continuously. Furthermore, not all of the computer users have SpyBot Search & Destroy installed, which would allow them to disable the auto start feature for this program. Although "msconfig" is still available in Windows Vista, it is not my favorite method of disabling auto start programs. Remembering something I had read, a quick check revealed that Windows Defender has start up modification capabilities. What is more, everyone with Vista has this on their computer.
Click your Start button then All Programs. You will find Windows Defender listed in the left hand column toward the top. When you have clicked this entry, Windows Defender will open. At the top of this window, next to the blue question mark is the "Tools" link. Clicking this opens another window.
The screen shot above is the Tools and Settings screen for Windows Defender. On this screen click the link "Software Explorer" indicated by the arrow. Software Explorer is the new tool for removing or disabling programs that start with Windows. Instead of one big picture of this tool smaller chunks will be shown as they are discussed.
This view is of the upper left corner of the Software Explorer tool. For the purposes of altering or exploring Vista's start up characteristics make sure the drop down box indicated by the arrow has "Startup Programs" selected. Software Explorer, as you may have guessed is a multipurpose tool. The section below the Category drop down list box shows the programs on your computer that pertain to the Category you selected and are organized by software vendor. The software companies name is listed then the modules authored by that company. In this screen shot and partially obscured is the company Adobe Systems Inc., beneath which is listed Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Photoshop Album Starter.
Click on a program name in the left hand pane of the Software Explorer window shown above. This causes any available information about that program to be displayed in the right hand pane. Shown in this screen shot is the information on an Adobe Reader module that is set to run at startup. This is very helpful, however, one needs to be aware that the labels here are not exactly accurate. For instance, the label "Date Installed:" implies the date when the software was installed on this particular computer. Since the computer from which this screen shot was taken wasn't built until after the release of Windows Vista in January of 2007, there is no possibility that this file was installed on it in October of 2006. "Date Authored" might be a better label in this instance.
This is a view of the bottom left corner of the Software Explorer window. If you intend to do more than just look at the information available in the Software Explorer, you will need to click the "Show for all users" button. This activates the buttons under the right hand pane. Be warned, the "Show for all users" button will disappear to be replaced by the label "Showing for all users". This new button behavior is a little alarming at first.
This screen shot shows the buttons under the right hand pane before they have been activated. Once activated you can click on the program you want to stop running at startup then click either the "Remove" button or the "Disable" button. For experimentation I recommend the "Disable" button. When a program has been disabled the "Enable" button becomes activated allowing easy reversal of experiments or mistakes.
Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names have been included in the above text that are trademarks of the respective companies.
