Recommended PDF Reader for Windows Terminal Server Environment

Right now, I have Adobe Reader 9.0.0 installed on my Win 2003 Terminal Server. Before I just go ahead and update it to version 9.4, does anyone have an experience with a better PDF Reader for a terminal server environment? It does not perform poorly now, but I am worried that the update might cause some unwanted slowdown in performance. Can anyone recommend a better alternative for a terminal server environment than Adobe PDF Reader? Any gotchas when installing in a TS environment? My googling hasn't really answered my questions completely and Adobe didn't seem to have any information pertaining to this situation available (unless I just missed it). Thanks. EDIT I should have been more detailed in my description. I have at least 50 users dialed into the TS at any time, and they all open PDF's all day long because all of our files are scanned that way. As mentioned in one of the comments, any added bloat to the Adobe Reader application in the 9.4 upgrade could cause some performance problems. Just trying to do my research before blindly updating. Everything could work just fine. I just want to cover my bases and see if there are any other lightweight reader alternatives designed for a TS environment.

asked Oct 8, 2010 at 13:18 169 2 2 gold badges 5 5 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges

You're not having problems now but you want something different because you're worried about a condition that might occur, of which you have no evidence to support your presumption? I'm sorry but I just don't follow this line of thinking. "I don't have a problem now, but I think I might have a problem in the future, so I want to replace the current thing I have which is working fine with something else, of which I have no knowledge of or experience with".

Commented Oct 8, 2010 at 13:50

To be fair, AR is fairly bloated as it has a standalone AutoCAD reader, DRM, etc. (see sarahs-muse.livejournal.com/1082344.html) but on the other hand the only thing I've found that reliably reads whatever version PDF is floating around is the official Adobe Reader. So. alternatives may run into quirks.

Commented Oct 8, 2010 at 14:07

+1 to Bart for quirks mode. Adobe is encouraging more lock-in to their products (I hate it but can't criticize. ) and making PDFs more likely to not work in alternative products. With that said, I think it's valuable to keep it around in a limited capacity, but roll out something more streamlined for general use. (Read: install but not the default.)