Launch Adobe PDF Files Faster

Posted by zeth 1337
June 20, 2006

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Adobe PDF files are great, universal, and used everywhere. The problem is they can take 10-30 seconds to launch, and sometimes even crash your computer! The solution is to stop most of the optional plug-ins (extras) from loading, and PDF documents will then launch much faster.

This is not difficult to do, it takes less than 20 seconds, and you can easily undo it if you have any problems. Here’s how:


  1. Right-click on your My Computer icon (or any folder icon will do).
  2. Select Explore (it’s the 2nd option from the top)
  3. Highlight and copy this text: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader\plug_ins
  4. Paste that text into the address bar at the top of your Explorer window and hit enter; that folder will load up and you will see the files and folders inside. (Note: if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader 7, obviously replace 6 with 7)
  5. You should see two ‘windows’ of folders and files. Float your mouse arrow on the right-side, right-click anywhere over empty space, and select New>Folder to create a new folder. Name this folder Optional (it’s not critical what you call it).
  6. Move all files and folders (annotations, image viewer, etc.) in the Plug-ins folder into your newly-created Optional folder except:
    • EWH32.api
    • printme.api (or print.api)
    • Search.api
  7. That’s it. Launch any PDF to see if it loads faster. If you ever notice any functions missing or not working correctly, just go back to this same location and move appropriate plug-ins back out of the Optional folder.
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