Disabling Adobe Updater

Adober Updater is a Windows application that automatically gets installed on your machine when you install Adobe Acrobat Reader 8. Previous versions of Acrobat Reader have had some sort of updater program, but this one is the most annoying one by far. First of all, unlike its predecessors you can't turn it off from within Acrobat Reader. I looked, but I could not find any way to disable it in Preferences. Second, it has a really nasty bug that causes it to hog all your CPU cycles [1]. Once it gets into a 100% CPU hogging frenzy, you can't even kill it from the Task Manager. You might be able to kill it by logging off, but lately I haven't been successful at doing it that way. The only sure-fire way to kill Adobe Updater is to reboot Windows (ugh).

I tried to delete the executable file itself, but even that didn't work [2]. I found that I could use Sunbelt Personal Firewall to block it from starting up. Unfortunately, the latest version of SPF does not seem to be very stable on my machine. So after SPF crashes, Adobe Updater starts up again if I happen to have Acrobat Reader open.

As you might guess, I hate Adobe Updater. So I was overjoyed to learn the other day that you can easily disable Adobe Updater by using the command-line REG program. Just run the following on the command line and you'll be all set:

REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\8.0\FeatureLockdown" /v bUpdater /d 0 /t REG_DWORD /f

[1]	I have no idea what triggers this bug, but it happens quite frequently.

[2]	I either deleted the wrong file or else Acrobat Reader recreated it.

.. editlink:: /feeds/7759675509232464806/posts/default/2868237307390519711

Disabling Adobe Updater
=======================
.. labels:: adobe updater, acrobat reader

Adober Updater is a Windows application that automatically gets installed on your machine when you install `Adobe Acrobat Reader 8`_. Previous versions of Acrobat Reader have had some sort of updater program, but this one is the most annoying one by far. First of all, unlike its predecessors you can't turn it off from within Acrobat Reader. I looked, but I could not find any way to disable it in Preferences. Second, it has a really nasty bug that causes it to hog all your CPU cycles [#]_. Once it gets into a 100% CPU hogging frenzy, you can't even kill it from the Task Manager. You might be able to kill it by logging off, but lately I haven't been successful at doing it that way. The only sure-fire way to kill Adobe Updater is to reboot Windows (ugh).

.. _Adobe Acrobat Reader 8: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

I tried to delete the executable file itself, but even that didn't work [#]_. I found that I could use `Sunbelt Personal Firewall`_ to block it from starting up. Unfortunately, the latest version of SPF does not seem to be very stable on my machine. So after SPF crashes, Adobe Updater starts up again if I happen to have Acrobat Reader open. 

.. _Sunbelt Personal Firewall: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/Sunbelt-Personal-Firewall/

As you might guess, I *hate* Adobe Updater. So I was overjoyed to learn the other day that you can `easily disable Adobe Updater`_ by using the command-line REG_ program. Just run the following on the command line and you'll be all set::

    REG ADD "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\8.0\FeatureLockdown" /v bUpdater /d 0 /t REG_DWORD /f

.. _easily disable Adobe Updater: http://blog.stealthpuppy.com/deployment/disable-adobe-updater-with-adobe-customization-wizard-8
.. _REG: http://www.computerhope.com/reg.htm

.. [#] I have no idea what triggers this bug, but it happens quite frequently.
.. [#] I either deleted the wrong file or else Acrobat Reader recreated it.