Cannot view PDF files in a Web Browser

When I click on a link in IE 7 it's supposed to open a PDF page but I keep getting error message:
"The adobe acrobat/reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser. Adobe Acrobat/Reader version 8 or 9 is required. Please exit and try again"
However, I have Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro installed on my machine, so I think it should work. After all, it's the pro version. Do I need to download/install Adobe Reader 8 or 9? If so, why, since I've already got Pro 9 installed.
What can I do to get passed this? This task is part of an online course I'm taking per work requirements.
thx,
John

Under help there is an option for repairing an installation. You should give that a try.

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Chrome - Adobe-Acrobat/Reader can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser.

I can't view PDF files via Chrome (it works on Internet Explorer but I prefer Chrome) - the error below has arisen recently on Chrome, though I can't see what has changed.
"Acrobat plug-in
The Adobe-Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your Web Browser and try again."
I have looked through Forum articles on similar errors and have tried the following(text copied from other Forum entries)
Repair Adobe Acrobat (from Acrobat)
Repair Adobe Acrobat (from Control Panel
Configure Acrobat as a helper application: Choose Edit > Preferences., Select Internet on the left., Deselect Display PDF In Browser Using [Acrobat application], and then click OK.Quit Acrobat or Reader
Create a registry item for Acrobat: with Regedit: If the registry item doesn't exist on the system, do the following: Go to Edit > New > Key and create the missing HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Adobe\Acrobat\Exe.Go to Edit > New > String Value and name this key (Default).Select (Default), and then go to Edit > Modify. Type the Adobe Acrobat path in the "Value data" for your product.,restart your computer
Repair the HKCR\AcroExch.Document registry key: Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AcroExch.Document., Right-click AcroExch.Document and select Delete; make sure that you have the correct key, and click Yes on any prompts, Right-click AcroExch.Document.7 and select Delete; make sure that you have the correct key, and click Yes on any prompts. Repair your Acrobat installation
None has solved the problem. However it still works ok with IE. But I want to stick with Chrome because I find IE is so slow!
I am using Vista, with Adobe Acrobat standard 9.5.2 and Google Chrome version 23.0.1271.64 m which is marked on Chrome as 'up to date'
Does anyone know why I might be getting this error on Chrome but not IE?

I think I have discovered the answer to my own question!
I have disabled Adobe Reader plug-in, and can now see PDFs in Chrome.
(Steps: Chrome Menu, Settings option, Click Advanced Settings link, then Content Settings button, then select Disable Individual Plug-Ins, and a list of plug-ins is offered to enable or disable).
I then get a different result depending on whether or not Chrome PDF viewer is enabled - with it enabled I see the PDF document in Chrome, or with it disabled then the option is offered to download it, but either way I can get it it via Chrome without having to run Internet explorer in another browser window.

Reader 9.2 - "can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser"

Hello,
I recently deployed Adobe 9.2 within our organization. I used the Adobe Customization Wizard 9 to transform the install set, and selected the "Display PDF in Browser" option as default.
When opening a PDF linked from a web URL, we get the message: "The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser. Adobe Acrobat/Reader version 8 or 9 is required. Please exit and try again." This occurs under IE8 and IE6, in both Windows XP SP2 and Windows 7.
If I launch Adobe Reader and unselect "Display PDF in Browser" in preferences, PDFs open normally.

I think I have discovered the answer to my own question!
I have disabled Adobe Reader plug-in, and can now see PDFs in Chrome.
(Steps: Chrome Menu, Settings option, Click Advanced Settings link, then Content Settings button, then select Disable Individual Plug-Ins, and a list of plug-ins is offered to enable or disable).
I then get a different result depending on whether or not Chrome PDF viewer is enabled - with it enabled I see the PDF document in Chrome, or with it disabled then the option is offered to download it, but either way I can get it it via Chrome without having to run Internet explorer in another browser window.

Adobe 9.1.3 and FireFox 3.5.1+ "...can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser"

This is the issue but I'm not sure there is a resolution:
Firefox: Version 3.5.1
Adobe: Version 9.1.3
When navigating the web, click a URL that opens a PDF inside the browser and you get an error * "The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is
running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser". Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your Web Browser and try again". I did read a post that doing a "repair" from the Adobe Reader application should fix this, they also reference a few registry keys to check becuase the post states it's lost the application path to Adobe version X. I don't necessarily buy that "fix" and here are my details below.
In FireFox if you navigate to Tools > Options > Applications > Adobe Acrobat Document
You're given choices:
Always ask: DOES NOT WORK, produces afore mentioned error *
Save File: Works, saves the file to a directory on your PC
Use Adobe Reader 9.1 (defau...: Works, opens your PDF's outside of your web browser
Use Adobe Acrobat (in Firefox): DOES NOT WORK, produces afore mentioned error *
Use other...:
IE seems to just work as expected.
If you open Adobe Reader > Edit > Preferences > Internet > Check "Display PDF in browser" - DOES NOT WORK, produces afore mentioned error *
This would seem to be an Adobe error rather than a FireFox web browser problems since FireFox does seem to know the correct path although I suppose you can't rule out that this is a FireFox problem since 2 out of the 4 PDF open options DON'T WORK.
Any thoughts on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Other information:
Adobe 8.1.5 works perfectly with FF 3.5.1+ when opening PDF's in the web browser, we also had no problems with previous versions either.
MSI push via Active Directory from Adobe 8.1.5 upgrade to Licensed Distribution I signed up for, Adobe 9.1.3 which was upgraded from 9.1.0, to 9.1.2, to 9.1.3 via an MSP patch.
Operating system: Windows XP SP 2, plenty of RAM, plenty of Drive
IE version this works with the new version of Adobe 9.1.3 is version 7 (7.0.5730.13)
Our FireFox MSI's come from Front Motions website and as far as I know we've never had problems with their MSI's, also tried the new release of FF 3.5.2 from their website.
I think that about covers it. Anyone else experiencing the same problems or have a patch?

After troublshooting this for the entire day today the issue seems to be a MIME problem.
If everything is woking perfectly, in Tools > Options > Applications...
You should see 4 or more things related to Adobe like "Adobe Acrobat Forms Document", etc. If you don't see at least 4 MIME entries either your Adobe installation is hosed or your FF installation is hosed. I haven't figured out which is causing the issue.
What I did was remaster my patches from my original Adobe 9.1.0 MSI with the two updates via the command line in the directories with the source files. On the 9.1.0 original file I first remastered my MST transform with the Adobe MST utility. I then applied my patches.
msiexec /a AcroRead.msi /p AdbeRdrUpd912_all_incr.msp
msiexec /a AcroRead.msi /p AdbeRdrUpd913_all_incr.msp
I then uploaded that to my network share, unlinked my group policy, made a new group policy, added a batch file to delete adobe.com from program file and the desktop on system startup even though my MST was supposed to take care of that - it's not a perfect world is it? :-)
I then reapplied my GPO's for both FireFox 3.5.2 and Adobe 9.1.3, I checked to make sure the MIME extensions were there and they were. You might have to go into your Adobe Preferences and select that open in browser setting depending on what happens or adjust your MIME settings in FireFox's options but it should work.
That's what worked for me. It's possible a few other things I did along the way tweaked it out, in my group policy on the first run I did select to upgrade previous group policies, for the remaster and repush I didn't select any previous GPO's to upgrade.
It's hard to tell what one thing tweaked it out or what combination of things tweaked out the install. I did also reinstall Adobe 8.1.5 and FF 3.0.10 before doing all this since our machines currently have that setup, I'm not sure if that affected it either, it's just hard to tell but I don't think it did simply because I had done that several times in troubleshooting this issue.
If anyone else has more specifics that would be great!

Unable to open .pdf in Firefox 3.6.8 with Adobe Reader 9.3.3 installed. Error message is "The Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser."

I am unable to open a PDF file in Firefox 3.6.8. Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.3.3 is installed. I get the error message "The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser."

You can get that error if there is still an old Adobe Reader plugin in the plugins folder in the Firefox program folder.
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins\nppdf32.dll
See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Adobe_Reader

Acrobat plug-in. I get this when try to opem. The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your Web Browser and try again. Don't problems w/ Internet Explorer-

Acrobat plug-in.
The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser.
Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your Web Browser and try again.

See if you can find a NPPDF32.DLL files in the Firefox program folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\)
You can see the installed plugins on the about:plugins page.
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/about%3Aplugins
You can set the pref plugin.expose_full_path to true on the about:config page to see the full path of plugins on the about:plugins page.
It is best not to leave that pref set to true as it exposes that full path to web servers, so reset that pref to false after you are done with the about:plugins page.
You can open about:plugins and about:config via the location bar, like you open a website (about: is a special protocol to access some build-in pages).
If you get a warning when opening the about:config page then you can confirm that you want to continue.
See Manually uninstalling a plugin:
* https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Troubleshooting+plugins

Cant open pdf file ..it says....the adobe/acrobat reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser. please exit adobe/acrobat reader and exit your web brouser and try again

cant open pdf file ..it says....The adobe/acrobat reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser. please exit adobe/acrobat reader and exit your web browser and try again

-> [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]]
-> Clear Cookies & Cache
* https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Template:clearCookiesCache
-> [[How to clear the cache#w_clear-the-cache|Clear the Network Cache]]
'''Plugins Updates'''
Your Flash plugin is quite older. You need to update it.
* Adobe Flash Player 11.0.1.152 (3.59 MB)
* http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
Your Java plugin is quite older. You need to update it.
* Java Version 6 Update 29
* http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
* [[Using the Java plugin with Firefox]]
-> Update All your Firefox Plugins
* https://www-dev.allizom.org/en-US/plugincheck/
* http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/
'''When Downloading Plugins Update setup files, Remove Checkmark from Downloading other Optional Softwares with your Plugins (e.g. Toolbars, McAfee, Google Chrome, etc.)'''
Check and tell if its working.

The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your Web Browser and try again.OK. I followed the instruction and the problem still persists.

I got the following pop-up when I tried to open an online PDF file:
The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser.
Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and exit your Web Browser and try again.
I tried many time, and it really doesn't work.
The plug-in I have is Adobe Acrobat 8.3.0.280

After I upgraded to Firefox 5, I had the same problem and I did a work around temporarily. I went the tools menu, then Add-ons, then clicked the "Plugins" on the left side (4th one down). I "disabled" both Adobe Acrobat 8.3.0.280 and Adobe Acrobat 10.1.0.536 using the disable buttons on the right side. PDF files now open again. However they are outside the actual browser.
My guess is that Adobe didn't catch up yet with a new update to work with Firefox or vice versa.
Hope that helps!
Michael

??AAR is running & can't be used to view PDF files in a web browser

I sure hope someone can explain what this means because I'm at a total loss. I've been trying to print a priority postage label for the last 30 minutes and I keep getting this msg...."The Adobe Acrobat Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web broweser. Exit Adobe Acrobat Reader and try again."
believe me, I've tried again AND AGAIN. Can someone please tell me what I need to do? I'm using Windows XP and for some reason have always had problems with the AAR. It tells me it can't open the file, and to try again, then the file opens.....???, but NOT this I've even downloaded AAR 9.1 or what ever is the latest and it's not helped.
I'm at my wit's end!

Post your question in the forum for Adobe Reader.

After updating my firefox now I can't download PDF files from websites. I keep getting the error Adobe Acrobat/REader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a web browser. My Adobe is the most recent version. I don't know what to do about

I can't view PDF files in firefox anymore.
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== after updating firefox

See:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Opening+PDF+files+within+Firefox
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Using+the+Adobe+Reader+plugin+with+Firefox
'''''Other Issues''''': ~~red:You have installed plug-ins with known security issues. You should update them immediately.~~
'''Update Java''': your ver. 1.6.0; current ver. 1.6.0.20 (important security update 04-15-2010)
(~~red:Firefox 3.6 and above requires Java 1.6.0.10 or higher~~; see: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Java-related+issues#Java_does_not_work_in_Firefox_3_6 )
''(Windows users: Do the manual update; very easy.)''
~~red:Check your version here~~: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/
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Do the update with Firefox closed.

The adobe acrobat reader that is running can not be used to view pdf files in a web browser

I have found a few postings related to this error, mostly centered around repairing the installation and checking the HKEY_Classes_Root/software/adobe/exe location. I have repaired and verified this and the problem remains.
My environment is a terminal server environment, we have 2 terminal servers each with Acrobat 9 installed. The kicker is that this issue seems to be plauging one of our TS servers but not the other.
The workaround seems to be having the users that have this issue opening Acrobat>Edit>Preferences>Internet> uncheck 'Display PDF in Browser".
So I suppose i have two questions:
1) how can I identify and correct this issue on the problem terminal server?
2) is there a way that I can globally change this preference for all users that log into this terminal server?
thank you in advance for any assistance!

Hi Ankit_Jain,
I actually found another thread here on the forum, which suggested uninstalling, re-starting, re-installing & registering. It worked!
Thank you for getting back to me.
Maggie

Newb: cannot view PDF files in Web Browser

I have a new Windows 7 computer & have installed Acrobat Standard 9.3.2 and Reader 9.3.1.
Whenever I attempt to "download" (i.e. view) a PDF in IE browser (or Firefox 3.6), I get the following error message:
"The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running can not be used to view PDF files in a Web Browser.
Adobe Acrobat/Reader version 8 or 9 is required. Please exit and try again."
The error remains the same regardless of whether Acrobat or Reader is running/not running prior to download attempt. My work-around solution is to save the file to disk, & then open it. This is a pain & should not be necessary.
Any advice that anyone can give me to correct this problem will be received with great thanks!
FastKick

Thanks for your prompt & accurate response, John!
With hindsight, I realise that I downloaded Reader when another install program told me that I needed it.
It would have helped me if the Acrobat install program had warned me in big colored type, not to install Reader...
I am happy now....
FastKick

Visual Studio 2013. Viewing a PDF file via the Web Browser control in Windows 8.1

I am writing a Windows Forms application in which I need to view PDF files via the Web Browser control. When the control is given the Navigate() command, Windows takes over and asks which program I want to open the file with. All was fine with VS 2010 and
XP. I have un-installed "PDF Complete", which was the default PDF viewer, but I now get asked for an alternative.
Thanks in advance.
Mike Saunders

Hi Mike,
It seems that we could use Internet Explorer to open a local .PDF file if it has the Adobe Reader. I doubt that the web control would be related to it. Like the MVP's suggset in the following thread, maybe it would be related
to certain plug-in tools in your side like the adober reader.
Reference:
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/a717117e-41ae-4775-9c28-d5a1042b396e/pdf-is-not-opening-in-web-browser-control-in-vbnet?forum=vbgeneral
Best Regards,
Jack
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Cannot view pdf files in browser

brand new imac cannot view PDF files in browser but the PDF's can be viewed if downloaded. All the data in the PDF online have question marks instead, maybe a missing font issue?

Have Adobe Reader installed? If so, disable the AdobePDFViewer.plugin resident in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins., restart, and try again. For font-associated issues, peruse Font Management in OS X

I cannot view pdf files. I cannot download adobe reader also.whenever you try to download any pdf file, the screen turn black, I cannot view pdf files. I cannot download adobe reader also.whenever you try to download any pdf file, the screen turn black

I cannot view pdf file.Cannot download adobe reader.When attempted to download adobe reader, screen turn black

Jen.ph
When you say that you have the same problem, do you mean that you are:
1. Not able to download Adobe Reader;
2. cannot view a PDF file;
3. or what?
Please be a little more descriptive of your particular problem or, better yet, start your own thread and clearly indicate which problem(s) you're having and what you have done, thus far, to correct the problem(s).
Clinton

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