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How to Fix the Biggest PC Annoyances

Computing hassles driving you bonkers? We feel your pain. And we have solutions--for hardware, software, and the Web.

By Steve Bass, PCW Print   

PDF Blues

The Annoyance: Call me a carper, but I just hate it when I try to read a Portable Document Format file on a Web page, and Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 insists on opening right in my browser. On top of that, a small Acrobat applet loads into memory, taking up system resources. Still more grating, that applet doesn't unload when I close the reader. Even my mother agrees with me on this gripe.

The Fix: It's simpler, more efficient, and just as fast to open Acrobat Reader separately. First, launch the reader from your Start menu, select Edit, Preferences, choose Options, and uncheck Display PDF in Browser (see FIGURE 1). Now when you select a PDF file while browsing, you'll see a File Download box. The reader starts automatically when you choose 'Open'.

On the other hand, if you use the reader integrated with your browser, you can unload the applet after closing your browser by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete, choosing Acrord32, and clicking End Task. In Windows XP and Windows 2000, choose the Processes tab in Task Manager; then select AcroRd32.exe and click End Process.

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