stop opening pdf in the browser tags:  firefox, help desk

opening a pdf file in the browser has pretty much always been a bad idea for various reasons.

the solution would seem simple — don’t install the pdf browser plugin when installing a pdf reader.  with adobe reader on windows though, you don’t get a choice and it installs the plugin (along with adobe air and acrobat.com) without asking you or even telling you.

so the solution is slightly less simple.  the file is nppdf32.dll, and it gets installed to two places:  firefox\plugins\ and adobereader\reader\browser (where firefox is wherever firefox is installed and adobereader is wherever adobe reader is installed — defaults are C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\ and C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\).  delete both files and firefox won’t see a pdf plugin and therefore won’t try to open pdf files in the browser (you’ll get the usual open with some external program or save to disk dialog).

on a somewhat related note, adobe air and acrobat.com can be removed after installing adobe reader using the add or remove programs control panel, renamed to programs and features in vista.

please note that the above post is likely made up in its entirety.

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Why is it a problem to open them in the browser? Can you embed/execute scripts through PDF?

-bs0d | AllSyntax.com

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good question!  i probably should have been more specific.

the biggest problem i have is that it just doesn’t work as well to have the adobe pdf plugin run in the browser as it does to have the adobe pdf reader program run on its own.  more specifically, the best i ever got with the plugin was that it slowed the browser down noticeably while a pdf was open in the browser.  slightly worse was the slowdown stayed until the browser was completely shut down and restarted.  i’ve also had browsers lock up when attempting to load the pdf plugin or the plugin might crash the entire browser.

finally it’s my personal preference to not have a browser plugin for things that are documents themselves, which also applies to the way ie likes to display office documents within the browser instead of actually launching excel or whatever.

as for scripts in pdf, i’m pretty sure it supports scripts (i think i remember seeing a script warning in the pdf reader program) but i haven’t heard of any specific problems with pdf scripting at all, let alone anything that would only affect you if using the plugin.

in recent years i haven’t noticed the performance and stability problems i mentioned at first, so maybe those have been fixed to the point where it’s just personal preference.  since adobe doesn’t make the browser plugin (or adobe air and acrobat.com) options when you install the reader program i usually click my first pdf link after installing and that opens in the browser.  then i get rid of the plugin :)

please note that the above post is likely made up in its entirety.

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