by Greg Schwartz

Created on: December 31, 2010

When Adobe Reader is installed on your computer, it is set to automatically check for updates.  Many people do not like this feature, because it takes up system resources and the update pop-up window can be a bother when you're in the middle of something.  There was also a recent virus that was spread when people updated their Adobe products from the taskbar update icon, so many users are wary of using the Adobe installer as a result.

There are two places where you can go to turn off Adobe Reader updates - from within Adobe Reader, and from the Adobe Updater application.  You should check to make sure they are both turned off to be certain.  The instructions below describe how to disable Adobe Reader updates.  (These instructions were written for Adobe Reader 9, but they should be similar for other versions.)

• From Adobe Reader

With Adobe Reader open, click Edit on the menu bar at the top of the window.  From the drop-down menu that appears, select Preferences at the bottom.  The last category in the Preferences window will be labeled Updater; select that category and you will see the options for updating Adobe Reader.  To disable updates, select the last option - "Do not download or install updates automatically" - then click OK.

• From the Adobe Updater

To access the Adobe Updater application, click the Start button in Windows XP (or the Vista orb in Windows Vista) and select My Computer (in Vista, select Computer).  Double click on your local hard drive (typically, this will be the C: drive) and then select Program Files, then Common Files, then Adobe, then Updater6 (or Updater with another number after it).  Double click on the icon for "Adobe_Updater" (if you have file extensions visible, it will be called "Adobe_Updater.exe").

The Adobe Updater will launch and check for updates.  If it finds an update, it will ask if you want to install it.  Click on the Preferences link.  (If the updater doesn't find any updates, it will give you two choices: Quit or Preferences.  Select Preferences.)

In the Preferences window, uncheck the top box, labeled "Automatically check for Adobe updates."  Then click OK to apply the change, and Adobe will no longer download updates nor notify you of them until you tell it otherwise.

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