Adobe Reader for XP - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2023, 02:35:09 am
content: I have XP on my oscilloscope and print screen captures to PDF. Currently it has Adobe 5, but I'm uncertain how long Adobe will continue reading Adobe 5 version files.From my understanding, the latest version to work with XP is 9, however, I can't locate it anywhere.Does anyone know which latest version works for XP and how to obtain it?Thanks

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2023, 03:02:49 am
content: Hi, it sounds like you are mixing up Adobe Reader releases and PDF versions. The relationship is not so simpleHowever, you can download Adobe Reader XI here, and it works on Windows XP:https://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2023, 03:10:07 am
content: Try Sumatra PDF, it's a far better reader than Adobe IMO.

author: BillyO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2023, 03:15:08 am
content: Adobe probably won't stop supporting older files. If they do, they will most likely have a conversion tool.All that said, is it not you scope software that creates the PDF file?

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 02:55:05 am
content: QuoteDoes this need Service Pack 2 or 3 because this scope only has 1

author: bdunham7
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 03:23:18 am
content: I would leave it alone, there's virtually no chance that old version PDF files are going to become unreadable. There's no reason to take that functionality out of the software. There are still many very old PDF files out there.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 05:21:58 am
content: If they ever change to a completely new PDF format they will still open old files.Much like Micrsosoft Office can still open *.doc files even tho it is a obsoltete format that was replaced by *.docx. Heck It even still lets you save documents in the old format in case that you need to sent it somewhere or use it with something that can't use the new format.The one case where they do make save files not work on purpose is some expensive professional tools like CAD or similar. That way they force people into buying the latest versions of the software since just a 1 year older version of the software wont open the latest files anymore. Otherwise people would have been perfectly fine with using a 10 year old version of SolidWorks as it does what they need to do.

author: bitwelder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 07:36:18 am
content: Quote from: james_s on May 16, 2023, 03:10:07 amAnd anyway nowadays web browsers (Firefox, Chrome at least) tend to include their own pdf reader engine.

author: BillyO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 01:58:31 pm
content: Still, the point remains, if his scope continues to create older format files, which it will, updating to a newer version of Acrobat Reader will get him nothing. I'm still not clear why he thinks it will.Adobe Acrobat 5 is not going to suddenly stop reading the files it once did.Besides, the PDF format is no longer under Adobe control. In 2007 it was handed over to ISO. So any PDF compliant reader, including Acrobat will never stop reading older format files.I just tested and the very latest version of Acrobat Reader will read the manual from my 1996 Toshiba laptop.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 03:52:23 pm
content: Quote from: bostonman on May 17, 2023, 02:55:05 amI think you would need Adobe Reader 9 for that:http://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.5.0/en_US/AdbeRdr950_en_US.exeAs other people have pointed out, there may not be any reason to upgrade, but you can download any version you like from Adobe's server.

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 04:01:27 pm
content: FWIW, I have Adobe Reader 11.0.08 on my XP machine.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 04:24:06 pm
content: Quote from: bostonman on May 16, 2023, 02:35:09 amForever. Leave it be.

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 04:57:47 pm
content: Just to clarify, I have a screen print program (PDF Creator) and it creates a PDF when I select print.If I try viewing the file, it views well in Adobe Reader on the scope, but, the only minor issue: I can't zoom in and out by holding the CTRL and moving the mouse wheel (a new version will solve that).I am, however, thinking of this wrong. The PDF Creator program will only produce PDFs, installing a newer version of Reader won't change anything unless I update the PDF Creator and that creates an unreadable version with Adobe Reader 5 (which may or may not happen).Also, I don't really need Adobe Reader on the scope, but it is nice to have it to look at PDFs should I need to reference. If I do upgrade Adobe Reader, it needs to run on XP, and with SP1 ONLY (I don't want to even attempt, or waste my time, installing SP2 and/or SP3).

author: BillyO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2023, 09:37:03 pm
content: Thanks for clearing that up. That makes sense.Try version 9, 10 or 11. Keep going up until you get you desired functionality (or until it will not install on XP).

author: bostonman
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2023, 02:31:04 pm
content: The link above for 9 didn't seem to work.I'm uncertain if my laptop blocked the download.

author: edavid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2023, 02:53:07 pm
content: Quote from: bostonman on May 18, 2023, 02:31:04 pmYes, depending on your browser there may be a security warning. I just overrode it, but you can try this link instead:http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.5.0/en_US/AdbeRdr950_en_US.exe