Adobe Acrobat is a family of
application softwareApplication software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
developed by
Adobe SystemsAdobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in
Portable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
(PDF). All members of the family, except
Adobe Reader (formerly Acrobat Reader), are commercial software, while the latter is available as
freewareFreeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
and can be downloaded from Adobe's web site. Adobe Reader enables users to view and print PDF files but has negligible PDF creation capabilities. Acrobat and Reader are widely used as a way to present information with a fixed layout similar to a paper publication.
History
Since the early 1990s, the Acrobat product has had several competitors, some of which used their own document formats, such as:
- AnyView from Binar Graphics
- Common Ground from No Hands Software
- Envoy
In computing, Envoy was a proprietary portable document file format marketed by WordPerfect Corporation, created as a competitor for Acrobat Pro. It was introduced by Tumbleweed Communications Corporation in 1993 and shipped with WordPerfect Office in March 1994.An Envoy file could be created by...
from WordPerfect CorporationWordPerfect is a word processing application, now owned by Corel.Bruce Bastian, a Brigham Young University graduate student, and BYU computer science professor Dr. Alan Ashton joined forces to design a word processing system for the city of Orem's Data General Corp. minicomputer system in 1979...
- Folio from NextPage
Folio Corporation was founded in 1987 by Curt Allen, and his brother-in-law Brad Pelo, and quickly gained recognition in helping other companies to publish content on local area networks, and on digital CD-ROMs for use on desktop computers. Allen and Pelo were both students at BYU; Allen was in...
- Replica from Farallon Computing
- WorldView from Interleaf
Founded in 1981, Interleaf was a company that created software products for the technical publishing creation and distribution process. Its initial product was the first commercial document processor that integrated text and graphics editing, producing WYSIWYG output at near-typeset quality...
- DjVu
DjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
from AT&T LaboratoriesAT&T Laboratories, Inc. was the research & development division of AT&T Corporation. It was founded in 1925 as Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., following the merger of the research & development divisions of American Telephone & Telegraph and Western Electric.-History:In 1996, most of Bell Labs...
/DjVu Project/LizardTechLizardTech is a geospatial software company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, notable for transferring the wavelet-based MrSID image encoding and viewing technology from initial development by the U.S...
/Varolmak/Caminova
By the late 1990s PDF had become the
de factoDe facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
standard, and the others had become largely historical footnotes. This in turn has led to many more competitors for Adobe Acrobat, providing both free and commercial programs that create or manipulate PDF, such as
GhostscriptGhostscript is a suite of software based on an interpreter for Adobe Systems' PostScript and Portable Document Format page description languages.- Features :...
,
FoxitFoxit Corporation is a California headquartered software corporation with offices in United States, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Founded in 2001 and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Foxit believes in innovative, standards-based technology and unrivaled customer support, with a deep...
, Nitro PDF and
Nuance CommunicationsNuance Communications is a multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA, that provides speech and imaging applications...
. Adobe also allows Acrobat plug-ins to be developed by third parties, which can add extra functions within the Acrobat program.
Product names
Adobe has changed the names of the products in the Acrobat family regularly, also splitting-up, joining, or discontinuing products. Initially, the name "Acrobat" was used as the parent name to a suite of products which included Acrobat Reader, Acrobat Exchange and Acrobat Distiller. Over time Acrobat Reader became Adobe Reader; and, Acrobat Exchange was simplified to Acrobat.
Between version 3 and 5, Standard and Professional versions were one product simply called Adobe Acrobat.
, the current main members of the Adobe Acrobat family are:
- Adobe Reader X (10.0.0)
- Adobe Acrobat X (10.0.0)
- Adobe Acrobat X Standard
- Adobe Acrobat X Pro
- Adobe Acrobat X Suite
- Acrobat.com
Acrobat.com is a suite of hosted PDF conversion and document exchange services from Adobe Systems. It includes the original service – Acrobat.com – as well as Adobe CreatePDF, Adobe ExportPDF, Adobe EchoSign, Adobe FormsCentral, and Adobe SendNow. Users access each of the services through their web...
Unlike most other Adobe products, such as members of
Adobe Creative SuiteAdobe Creative Suite is a collection of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications made by Adobe Systems. The collection consists of Adobe's applications , that are based on various technologies...
, members of Adobe Acrobat family do not have icons that display two letters on a colored rectangular shape.
Version 1.0
Acrobat 1.0 was originally released on 15 June 1993 for Macintosh. It was later for
DOSDOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
and Windows 3.1. This was not available in single copies and was not initially free, with Acrobat Reader originally priced at $50 per user. After a while, the
IRSThe Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
purchased a right to distribute Reader 1.0, effectively making it seem free to those who obtained it that way.
Adobe Acrobat 1.0 included:
- Support for PDF version 1.0
- Acrobat Exchange 1.0 (included PDFWriter printer driver and Acrobat Exchange application)
- Acrobat Distiller 1.0, a software application that creates a PDF file from a PostScript
PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...
source
Version 2.0
Acrobat 2.0 was first released in September 1994 for Windows and Macintosh. It included:
- Support for PDF version 1.1
- Acrobat Exchange 2.0
- Acrobat Catalog, which creates searchable indexes for PDF files. Searching required a special version of Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Exchange.
Acrobat Professional 2.0 was also released, which included Acrobat Exchange plus Distiller.
Adobe also released the first Acrobat Plug-ins SDK; allowing third party developers to create plug-ins for the Acrobat Exchange application.
Version 3.0
Acrobat 3.0 was released in November 1996. It was the first release to support
Windows 95Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
, and the last to support Windows 3.1. It was also the first version to display PDF files inside web browsers, and the first to support form-filling. Later, an update to version 3.02 introduced extended forms capabilities and JavaScript. Adobe Acrobat 3.0 included:
- Support for PDF version 1.2
- A free Reader that allows searching (It was not part of the default download)
- Acrobat Catalog
- A Distiller printer driver.
Version 4.0
Acrobat 4.0 was released in April 1999. It included:
- Support for PDF version 1.3
- Support for Public key infrastructure
Public Key Infrastructure is a set of hardware, software, people, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates. In cryptography, a PKI is an arrangement that binds public keys with respective user identities by means of a certificate...
(PKI) and digital signatureA digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit...
s via plug-ins
Adobe also released
Distiller Server 4.0, a version of Distiller for Windows,
LinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and Solaris that is licensed to multiple users, as well as
Acrobat Business Tools 4.0, a limited version of Acrobat.
Version 5.0
Acrobat 5.0 was released in May 2001. It included support for PDF version 1.4 and was the last version to support Windows 95. Acrobat 5.0.5 was the first to be able to run native in
Mac OS XMac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, but also ran in
Mac OS 9Mac OS 9 is the final major release of Apple's Mac OS before the launch of Mac OS X. Introduced on October 23, 1999, Apple positioned it as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever," highlighting Sherlock 2's Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as...
.
This version did not include PDFWriter in Macintosh release.
Acrobat Reader 5.1, the subsequent version of Acrobat reader supported the Adobe LiveCycle Reader Extensions for forms saving
Adobe also released
Distiller Server 5.0 and
Acrobat Approval 5.0, a limited version of Acrobat mainly sold to people who wanted to digitally sign PDF files or save fill-in forms.
Version 6.0
Acrobat 6.0 was released in July 2003. This version introduced significant changes to the family of Adobe Acrobat:
- Adobe Acrobat Standard 6.0 was released. It is a limited version of Acrobat Professional that includes Distiller but lacks Adobe Catalog, form design features and pre-press support.
- Adobe Acrobat Elements 6.0 was introduced. It enabled PDF creation but was aimed at the corporate market and was only volume-licensed for a minimum of 1000 licenses. It was available for Microsoft Windows only.
- Acrobat Elements Server 6.0, a server software version of Acrobat Elements, was introduced.
- Adobe Acrobat Reader was renamed Adobe Reader.
- Distiller printer driver was renamed Adobe PDF.
- PDFWriter was discontinued. PDFWriter was a printer driver used to create PDF files. It was discontinued in favor of the Adobe PDF printer driver to Distiller.
- A new version of Adobe Catalog was included, which was not compatible with earlier products for searching.
- Support for many operating system was dropped. Mac OS 9 was no longer supported. No version of Adobe Acrobat for Linux or Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
was released. Adobe Acrobat Standard did not support Windows 95 and Windows 98Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
, although it supported Windows 98 SE. Adobe Acrobat Professional ceased to support Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows MeWindows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....
.
This version included:
- Support for PDF version 1.5
- Support for PKI (without a plug-in) via Microsoft CryptoAPI
- Support "Reader enabling", allowing Adobe Reader to save, sign or annotate PDF files if the PDF file allowed
Version 6 of the application was criticized for its performance. Adobe Acrobat 6 is slow to load and use. The Acrobat 6 plug-ins for web browsers was also criticized for suffering from low performance and potentially rendering one's web browser non-responsive.
Version 7.0
Adobe Acrobat 7.0 was released in January 2005: It was the first version to include a mandatory
product activationProduct activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary computer software programs. In one form, product activation refers to a method invented by Ric Richardson and patented by Uniloc where a software application hashes hardware serial numbers and an ID number specific...
. It included:
- Support for PDF version 1.6
- Support for Adobe Policy Server rights management
- Support for embed 3D
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
object information from the .u3d Universal 3DUniversal 3D is a compressed file format standard for 3D computer graphics data.The format was defined by a special consortium called 3D Industry Forum that brought together a diverse group of companies and organizations, including Intel, Boeing, HP, Adobe Systems, Bentley Systems, Right...
format
The Adobe Acrobat 7 family saw multiple changes. Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional for Windows now included
Adobe LiveCycle DesignerAdobe LiveCycle Designer is a forms authoring tool published by Adobe Systems. The purpose of Designer is to be a one-stop design tool for XML forms to be rendered as PDF or HTML files.-History:...
7.0. Adobe Elements 7.0 was also released which was still only sold through volume licensing outlet but dropped the minimum licenses limit to 100 licenses. Finally, another edition of Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat 3D, was added to the family.
Adobe Acrobat 3D included all of the functionality of Acrobat Professional 7.0 as well as updated support for embedded 3D computer graphics, tools for capturing 3D content from
OpenGLOpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
applications, and the Adobe Acrobat 3D Toolkit for converting CAD documents to PDF objects. Also included is a version of the capture tool for installation on Unix.
Acrobat 7 further dropped support for Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Me. However, Adobe released editions of Adobe Reader for Linux, Solaris (
SPARCSPARC is a RISC instruction set architecture developed by Sun Microsystems and introduced in mid-1987....
only),
HP-UXHP-UX is Hewlett-Packard's proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on UNIX System V and first released in 1984...
and IBM AIX.
Version 8.0
Adobe Acrobat 8.0 was released in November 2006: It included:
- Support for PDF version 1.7
- Acrobat 8 Elements, which was withdrawn before its expected release in mid-2007. But it is bundled with RoboHelp 7 as a Distiller prompting that the product had been finished.
- Acrobat Connect (formerly Macromedia Breeze
Adobe Connect is software used to create information and general presentations, online training materials, web conferencing, learning modules, and user desktop sharing. The product is entirely Adobe Flash based...
), a support application and an online personal meeting rooms to collaborate in real time for up to 15 participants
A later update 8.1 on June 2007 was released in order to support
Microsoft Office 2007Microsoft Office 2007 is a Windows version of the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft's productivity suite. Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it was released to volume license customers on November 30, 2006 and made available to retail customers on January 30, 2007...
,
Windows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, and
64-bit64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
Windows operating systems. Also in September 2007, Adobe Reader 8.1.1 released for Linux and Solaris (SPARC) users.
Adobe Acrobat 8 family saw a handful of changes. Acrobat 3D was now able to produce embedded
PRCPRC is a 3D file format that can be used to embed 3D data in a PDF file.This highly compressed format facilitates the storage of different representations of a 3D model. For example, you can save only a visual representation that consists of polygons , or you can save the model's exact geometry...
file format, a highly compressed format for geometry and graphics which requires Reader 8.1 to display. It also supported
Product Manufacturing InformationProduct and manufacturing information, also abbreviated PMI, conveys non-geometric attributes in 3D computer-aided design and Collaborative Product Development systems necessary for manufacturing product components or subsystems. PMI may include geometric dimensions and tolerances, 3D...
and many different CAD formats.
Acrobat Connect Professional (formerly Macromedia Breeze) was also added to the family. It allowed scalable interactive web conferencing and multiple personal meeting rooms for everyone across an enterprise.
The Mac OS X version of Adobe Acrobat Pro saw a significant favor: Adobe Acrobat for Macintosh was in
Universal binaryA universal binary is, in Apple parlance, an executable file or application bundle that runs natively on either PowerPC or Intel-manufactured IA-32 or Intel 64-based Macintosh computers; it is an implementation of the concept more generally known as a fat binary.With the release of Mac OS X Snow...
and ran on both PPC and Intel.
Version 9.0
Adobe Acrobat 9.0 was released in July 2008: It included:
- Support for PDF version 1.7
- Support for Adobe extensions to PDF 1.7
- The ability to create Acrobat forms was in Acrobat Standard, which was previously only available Acrobat Professional 6, 7 and 8
- Support for real-time collaboration on PDF files with synchronized document views and chat
- Improved Web Capture for capturing entire web pages or just some parts into PDF
- Integration with Acrobat.com to enable storage and sharing of PDF files
- Support for comparing and highlighting the differences between two versions of a PDF document
- Support for playback of Flash Video or H.264 video in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader
- Support for conversion of a variety of video formats to Flash Video for playback inside PDF
- Support for creating PDF maps by importing geospatial
Geospatial analysis is an approach to applying statistical analysis and other informational techniques to geographically based data. Such analysis employs spatial software and analytical methods with terrestrial or geographic datasets, including geographic information systems and...
files that retain metadata and coordinates
- Support for Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
(OCR) on PDF files using ClearScan. Adobe ClearScan technology creates and embeds custom Type1-CID fonts to match the visual appearance of a scanned document after optical character recognition. ClearScan uses these newly created custom fonts instead of system fonts or Type1-MM.
Adobe Acrobat 9 family includes a new member: Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended for Microsoft Windows. This product includes Adobe Presenter as well as the features of Acrobat 3D.
Adobe Reader 9 drops support for Adobe Reader Extensions 5 and 6 which permit Adobe Reader client software to save changes to filled-in forms in PDFs. Adobe Reader Extensions 6.1 and newer are still supported. Legacy PDFs will still be viewable, however they will open with the following warning:
Adobe Acrobat 9 family also dropped the
multiple document interfaceGraphical computer applications with a multiple document interface are those whose windows reside under a single parent window , as opposed to all windows being separate from each other . Such systems often allow child windows to embed other windows inside them as well, creating complex nested...
. Previous versions of Adobe Acrobat opened multiple PDF files in the same window. Acrobat 9 however, only supports the
single document interfaceIn graphical user interfaces, a single document interface or SDI is a method of organizing graphical user interface applications into individual windows that the operating system's window manager handles separately. Each window contains its own menu or tool bar, and does not have a "background"...
scheme, wherein each PDF file is opened in an instance of Adobe Acrobat.
Version 10.0
Adobe Acrobat X (version 10.0) was released on November 15, 2010. It included
sandboxingIn computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs. It is often used to execute untested code, or untrusted programs from unverified third-parties, suppliers, untrusted users and untrusted websites....
protection for
Windows XPWindows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
,
Windows VistaWindows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and Windows 7 and protected mode view dropping support for
Windows 2000Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
as well as Macs running on PPC.
Adobe Reader X is available for Windows, Mac OS, Android and
iOSiOS is an operating system for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, and Apple TV.IOS may also refer to:-Companies and organisations:* Illinois Ornithological Society, American state-based bird club...
.
Support for
LinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
is not planned.
The latest version of Adobe Reader X is 10.1.1
For Android and IOS :10.1.0, and 10.1.1 for Windows and Mac.
Language availability
Adobe Acrobat is available in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian. Arabic, Hebrew and Greek versions available from
WinSoft International,
Adobe SystemsAdobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
'
internationalization and localizationIn computing, internationalization and localization are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional differences and technical requirements of a target market...
partner. Adobe Reader is also available in Catalan as of version 9.1.
Specific features for Arabic and Hebrew languages
The Arabic and Hebrew versions are specifically developed for these specific languages, which are normally written
right-to-leftA language is described as right-to-left if writing starts from the right of the page, and continues to the left. Right to left scripts are:* Arabic alphabet - used for Arabic, Persian, Urdu and many other languages....
. These versions come with special TouchUp properties to handle digits, ligatures option and paragraph direction in right-to-left Middle Eastern scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian, as well as standard left-to-right Indian scripts such as Devanagari and Gujarati. The Web Capture feature can convert single web pages or entire web sites into PDF files, while preserving the content's original text encoding. Acrobat can also copy Arabic and Hebrew text to the system
clipboardThe clipboard is a software facility that can be used for short-term data storage and/or data transfer between documents or applications, via copy and paste operations...
in its original encoding; if the target application also supports the text encoding, then the text will appear in the correct script.
Security
The latest security bulletins from Adobe are published on their
Security bulletins and advisories page
From Version 3.02 onwards, Acrobat Reader (now Adobe Reader) has included support for
JavaScriptJavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
. This functionality allows the document creator to include code which executes when the document is read. While JavaScript is designed without direct access to the file system to make it "safe", vulnerabilities have been reported for abuses such as distributing malicious code through Acrobat.
McAfeeMcAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
predicts that Adobe software, especially Reader and
FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, will be the primary target for attacks in 2010. Adobe applications had already become the most popular client-software targets for attackers during the last quarter of 2009.
September 2006 warning
On September 13, 2006, David Kierznowski provided sample PDF files illustrating these vulnerabilities. Since at least version 6, JavaScript can be disabled using the preferences menu and embedded URLs that are launched are intercepted by a security warning dialog box to either allow or block the website from launching.
February 2009 warning
On February 19, 2009, Adobe released a
Security Bulletin announcing Javascript vulnerabilities. US-CERT recommended users change two default preferences in the program:
- Disable JavaScript in Adobe Reader and Acrobat. Acrobat JavaScript can be disabled in the General preferences dialog (Edit, Preferences, JavaScript, and un-check "Enable Acrobat JavaScript").
- Disable the displaying of PDF documents in the web browser. This can be disabled in the General preferences dialog (Edit, Preferences, Internet, and un-check "Display PDF in browser").
For users of
Internet ExplorerWindows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
, US-CERT recommended changing an additional default behavior:
- Prevent Internet Explorer from automatically opening PDF documents (by editing a registry key
The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores configuration settings and options on Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains settings for low-level operating system components as well as the applications running on the platform: the kernel, device drivers, services, SAM, user...
in Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
).
January 2010 Google/China incident
It was reported on January 14, 2010 that an analyst identified a vulnerability in Internet Explorer as a tool used to spy on companies and individuals.
"...independent research conducted by security firm McAfee, which has found evidence that a vulnerability in Internet Explorer—but not Acrobat Reader—was exploited in the attack. iDefense later retracted its claim about PDFs, but stands behind the rest of its report."
Operating systems
- Symbian
Symbian is a mobile operating system and computing platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Accenture. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS, which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user...
: Adobe Reader LE v2.5 developed by QuickOfficeQuickoffice is a productivity suite for mobile devices which allows users to view, create and edit text files, presentations and spreadsheets. It consist of Quickword , Quicksheet and QuickPoint . The programs are compatible with Microsoft Office.Quickoffice is commonly used in smartphones and PDAs...
lets the user view PDF (Adobe Portable Document Format) files on S60 3rd Edition mobile devices.
- The name "Adobe Reader LE" is also used for officially-supported versions of the reader on other mobile platforms.
External links