Adobe Reader 11.0.17 is now XP incompatible (?)

[NoelC]

Bear in mind that a developer, using the most current tools today (e.g., Visual Studio 2015) has to make a conscious decision to support XP, as the environment one has to choose to build with is different.  As I recall, it's even a separate option you have to choose during tool installation now.

Developers are thus being confronted with a really basic binary question:  Develop for the future (Vista and above) or develop for the past (XP).  Even the definition of "future" is changing, as now there are Apps (Windows 8 and above).  So far, I personally see very little merit in Apps, but that will probably change.

Given this, we can be quite sure that we will see fewer and fewer XP-compatible software releases moving forward. 

Probably just the inertia of having XP-specific support in the source code is keeping existing projects (especially big, mature ones like Adobe Reader) from instantly taking the latter choice.  But it's not terribly hard to carve out code, so that's not going to be true for long.

And face it, the number of XP users is now not all that high.  What's the current statistic?  6.something percent?  Users numbering in the tens of millions now in a market of a billion?  While tens of millions is still a lot of users, it's hard to spend money developing new software for that small a slice of the pie.

What all this means is that, no matter how crafty we get, there will come a time that those of us holding back on older systems will face the fact that we will not be able to continue to run all the new software we'd like.  I'm already facing it even with Win 8.1...  I've already had to stop taking display driver updates, and I'm strongly considering never running Windows Update again (on purpose anyway).

The pain of running an older OS will grow little by little - and at some point the reduction of pain in running a new system will become sufficiently attractive.  In a connected world it will always be so, even when the absolute value from the newest system is actually lower than that of the older system.

Put another way, sooner or later deprecation will reach a feature you care deeply about.

Some things that can help mitigate the pain in the meantime...

• Get a system powerful enough to run virtualization software, so you can run a newer OS in a VM if you really want/need to.
• Be aware of (and take charge of) all your system integration and maintenance.  Get control of updates!
• Continue reading and posting here; as bphlpt points out, this is one of this site's real strengths.

-Noel

Edited July 21, 2016 by NoelC

[bluebolt]

I’m sick of Windows 8.x-10, and I don’t even run the meddlesome s***.  Sorry to interrupt your XP discussion, but this is important.

It's not, by the way.

[HarryTri]

4 hours ago, NoelC said:

Get a system powerful enough to run virtualization software, so you can run a newer OS in a VM if you really want/need to.

Or run the older OS in a VM. Anyway I wouldn't upgrade to Windows 10 even if they paid me the $120 it is said that it will cost to upgrade to it after the 29th of July, but one day I may have to buy a new PC with Windows 10 installed on it... (probably because my current one will be broken). I'll do what I can with the new OS once again (Windows 8 by the way are not so horrible, you just have to replace the missing Start Menu, even the Start Screen isn't that bad - not as good as the Start Menu of course either - and you can skip it when logging in if you want).

[Jody Thornton]

12 hours ago, bphlpt said:

Jody I mean you no disrespect, and you and I have had enough interactions that I know you know that.  But in my mind your current stance is just an evolution of what you have been expressing for years.  When XP was just starting to approach End of Support, your stance was repeatedly that of (paraphrased by me and exaggerated to make a point):

"What are we going to do? Once XP gets to EOS the OS will instantly be overrun by every exploit known to man! What are we going to do?"

And though you were repeatedly told over and over and over that just because the OS is not officially supported or updated does not mean that it cannot be used safely and reliably, that did not matter.  Your stance remained the same, focusing on what bad things might happen, rather than taking the approach of figuring out what you needed to do to continue to use your "beloved" XP64.  So you switched to Win 8.0, (after a brief run with Vista?), and you seem happy.  That is absolutely wonderful.  That is really one of the main goals of this forum - to help everyone use the version of Windows that they choose, on the hardware that works for them, with the applications that they need or want to use, safely and reliably.  We will even help you continue to use Win 8.0 as long as you'd like, even though many of us cannot understand why anyone would possibly want to use any of the abominations that Win 8.x+ have become.  heheh (NoelC obviously feels differently and that's great for him.)

So now you have progressed in your stance from worrying about what might happen to your OS of choice, to almost kind of indirectly deriding others about their choice of OS.  Sort of taking the attitude that since you were able to move on successfully that they should too.  That would be all well and good if they were asking about whether they should move on or not, but that is not appropriate if they are trying to figure out how to stay where they are.  If someone asks for an opinion then by all means express yours honestly and completely, but otherwise please be positive rather than negative.  You are better than that kind of behavior.

But, then, the above is just my opinion.

Cheers and Regards my friend

I agree that it's an evolution of thought bphlpt.  But I don't see where I was being negative.  I see it as:  In 2014, I saw things one way.  Then the landscape changed.  Now I see a different way.  And I'm just expressing it.  That's all. In fact, it's no more negative than referring to Win 8 as an abomination, right? Noel and I both know you're joking.  That's why I placed smiley faces in my posts.  I even qualified one of my posts with, "I know it sounds like I ... on and on", just to clarify that I realized I might've sounded smug, but didn't mean to be..  So I haven't meant to not be friendly about it, I promise. 

But if someone feels they've started to "see the light", can't they express that, even if it's a different viewpoint than most others hold?  That was all I meant to do.  I'm sorry it turned off a number of people.

No bad feelings intended.  I just wanted to express my change of mindset, that was all.

[bphlpt]

We're all good, Jody. I'm glad you understood my little joke about the "abomination".   We'll all just continue trying to keep everyone happy with whatever OS that works best for them. To each their own and that's the way it should be.

Cheers and Regards my friend,
John

[Dave-H]

On 21 July 2016 at 3:36 PM, Dclem said:

Back to the issue of version 11.0.17 of Adobe Reader and Windows XP, I can report that the first time I launched Adobe Reader I received the error message reported previously.   However, on subsequent launches, everything has performed in a normal manner, so I am experiencing no problems using Adobe Reader XI version 11.0.17 on my Windows XP sp3 system!!

A bit late in the day, but I've only just spotted this thread!
I recently manually updated Adobe Reader to 11.0.17 (it doesn't do it automatically any more of course) and had exactly the same experience!
I immediately thought, "oh dear, that's the end of that, back to 11.0.16 again", but as you say after one error message it's now running fine.
Bizarre!

 

[Mcinwwl]

Real question is "any of you, XP guys, have Adobe Reader Pro?". If the answer is not, why do you bother using this overweighted cow, known for security flaws? I did replace AR with Sumatra Reader on all my machines (XP or not)- faster, useful, well designed with no unnecessary craps. And it has no (literally - no) EULA, so most probably free for use in any environment.

[Dibya]

1 hour ago, Mcinwwl said:

Real question is "any of you, XP guys, have Adobe Reader Pro?". If the answer is not, why do you bother using this overweighted cow, known for security flaws? I did replace AR with Sumatra Reader on all my machines (XP or not)- faster, useful, well designed with no unnecessary craps. And it has no (literally - no) EULA, so most probably free for use in any environment.

You are right . I also use sumatra but some may need Adobe reader for comp-ability on some sites .

Within few weeks my ExtendedXp 0.03 will be released . it will make xp run adobe acrobet dc

Edited September 10, 2016 by Dibya

[Mcinwwl]

3 hours ago, Dibya said:

some may need Adobe reader for comp-ability on some sites .

Bring'em here. I Ain't use Flash, Reader, Java, Silverlight or any of somewhen necessary plug-ins for 4 months, and only real change were some blocked commercials.
Especially Reader. Can't remind any site that required it thru my entire life.
 

[j7n]

Has the PDF format been fundamentally changed that a new reader is required to view files made as of now? I don't think so. I use PDF-XChange Viewer 2.5, released in 2014. It is small enough, renders type at high quality, and has good UI design without flattness or ribbons.
 

[dencorso]

1 hour ago, j7n said:

Has the PDF format been fundamentally changed that a new reader is required to view files made as of now? I don't think so.

Not really. I use either Adobe reader 8.1.3 or 9.5.5 in all my machines (even on win 7 sp1 ultimate x64) and never actually needed anything newer, up to now.
But since that can change with passing time, it's good to know both X and XI still do work with XP, even if after complaining some.

[Dibya]

12 hours ago, Mcinwwl said:

Bring'em here. I Ain't use Flash, Reader, Java, Silverlight or any of somewhen necessary plug-ins for 4 months, and only real change were some blocked commercials.
Especially Reader. Can't remind any site that required it thru my entire life.
 

Here in india back in days many university site never opened without ar9

Edited September 11, 2016 by Dibya

[Mcinwwl]

Well, might be due to that I don't open sites in Hindi or any other India language :>