Best PDF Reader for Win10

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What’s needed for this project is a low profile PDF reader for Windows 10. It doesn’t need any editing capability but does need a decent search ability. Touch friendly would be a plus but not a requirement.

I’ve used Foxit Reader (free) on Win7 for years but have found that it’s gotten rather annoying. I’ve also tried Nitro PDF Reader and it’s OK but it does install a completely unneeded PDF printer driver.

Win10 Edge can, apparently, be used as a PDF reader and there is a free app called Reader from MS.

Anyone have a recommendation for a Best in Class? Free is preferred but a reasonable price is acceptable.

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I’ve used Foxit Reader (free) on Win7 for years but have found that it’s gotten rather annoying.

Graham,

As a happy user of FoxIt Reader I’m curious what you find annoying?

I didn’t like the Cloud feature but that’s now been setup as an option in the installer.

:cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I didn’t like the Cloud feature but that’s now been setup as an option in the installer.

It’s true that Foxit appears to have given up on trying to foist ‘Foxit Cloud’ onto everyone by default, installing it without any notification. I didn’t like this behaviour either and did a little checking with the latest version of Foxit Reader.

Foxit now installs (again, by default) a new ‘Foxit Reader Service’ in an attempt to push its ‘Cloud’ services, now re-named ‘ConnectedPDF’.

When you run Foxit Reader by itself (i.e. instead of double-clicking on a PDF file to open Foxit Reader), this ‘Foxit Reader Service’ connects to Amazon AWS servers.

45368-foxit-connectedpdf
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Even if you stop and disable the ‘Foxit Reader Service’ and re-name the service executable, ‘Foxit Reader’ will still popup a plea for you to sign in to a Foxit account every time you use it.

45367-foxit-homepage
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To see what would happen, I renamed every Foxit executable to .OLD except for Foxit Reader itself:

45369-foxit-all-old
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I assumed that this would prevent Foxit Reader from doing anything except to ready itself for displaying a PDF file. However, when I ran just Foxit Reader (i.e. instead of double-clicking on a PDF file to open Foxit Reader), Nir Sofer’s CurrPorts showed Foxit Reader itself connecting to Amazon AWS servers:

45370-foxit-just-reader
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Interesting…

On the other hand, if you need to create PDF’s, Foxit Reader appears to have a very efficient pseudo print driver, beaten only by PrimoPDF of the ones I tested (with an identical source document):

45371-foxit-printo
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Foxit now installs (again, by default) a new ‘Foxit Reader Service’ in an attempt to push its ‘Cloud’ services, now re-named ‘ConnectedPDF’.

That’s the kind of thing that was annoying me. It seemed that it would periodically install some additional something that I didn’t need or want.

I’m trying to keep everything as low profile as possible since this is for a hybrid (Surface Pro 3) rather than a production computer. One thing I don’t want to do is install and remove a bunch of different full Windows programs.

I was rather hoping to find an actual Win10 UWP apps. I’m going to try Edge for a while and might install a couple of those and see how they do since they don’t leave the kind of detritus Windows programs do if they are removed. That’s the sort of thing I’m looking for – simple.

…

I just noticed that there is now a Foxit Mobile PDF reader UWP. May be worth a look.

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Does this help?
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//176901-scan-amp-send?p=1062680&viewfull=1#post1062680

cheers, Paul

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I’ve just start to use Edge. I like the idea that I don’t have to install something else if I don’t have to. Can’t say too much yet other than it seems to work.

--Joe

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I’ve just start to use Edge. I like the idea that I don’t have to install something else if I don’t have to. Can’t say too much yet other than it seems to work.

I also appreciate not having to install a reader. Edge performs well for my needs (when necessary I can easily create PDF files — using LibreOffice, or other office software).

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Hey Y’all,

You can disable a lot of things in File->Preferences. The only thing I can’t seem to get rid of is that little popup about ConnectedPDF but it disappears fast enough. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
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a low profile PDF reader … a decent search ability

I haven’t used it, but Sumatra PDF has always been about small and light. Might be worth a quick check of how its Ctrl+F performs.

Lugh.
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I’ve used PDF-XChange from Tracker Software Products for many years on Windows 7. It’s now called PDF-XChange Editor and there is a version which is free, subject to a few conditions. I have yet to try it on Windows 10.

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PDF-XChange Editor … I have yet to try it on Windows 10.

I’ve been using this since last decade, works fine on my Win10.

It doesn’t fit the OP’s ‘low profile’ criterion though, got a lot of [good if you need them] extras.

Lugh.
~
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I have Acrobat Reader on three Win10 systems (one is Pro upgraded from Win7 w/ latest AU update 14393.1000, another is Home also w/ latest AU update 14393.1000, the third is the latest Insider Preview build).

On all three systems the Adobe Reader version is 11.16 (I turned off “update automatically” about the time “Adobe Reader DC” was released because I have no desire to use “the cloud” features).

Adobe Reader 11.16 works fine w/o crashing on all three of my above Win10 systems.

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I’ve taken a bit of time to compare Edge, Microsoft Reader, Adobe Reader Touch, and Foxit MobilePDF. The last three are all free UWP apps.

Edge
–Seems to be limited to continuous one page display
–Has a simple search function
–Has jump to page number
–No bookmarking and does not remember last page read
–No annotation function
–Cannot open a PDF from within app (no file open)

Reader
–Has single or continuous and side-by-side page display
–Has a simple search function
–Has jump to page number
–Does use predefined bookmarks, but cannot bookmark a page
–No annotation function
–Does keep track of previous documents read and last page
–Cannot open a PDF from within app (no file open) unless it was previously read

Adobe Reader Touch
–Has single or continuous but no side-by-side page display
–Has a simple search function
–Has jump to page number
–Does use predefined bookmarks, but cannot bookmark a page
–Has annotation functions (including notes and author)
–Does keep track of last page read but there’s no list of prior documents
–Cannot open a PDF from within app (no file open)

Foxit MobilePDF
–Single page only. No continuous or side-by-side page display
–Has a simple search function
–Has jump to page number
–Does use predefined bookmarks, but cannot bookmark a page
–Has annotation/drawing functions but it’s extremely confusing and there’s no help
–Does keep track of last page read but there’s no list of prior documents
–Cannot open a PDF from within app (no file open)

There’s no clear winner. Edge is the least capable and Foxit is rather confusing. Adobe has markup capability but no side-by-side. Since the apps are free and don’t require much space, I’ll probably keep the MS and Adobe UWP for now and make MS Reader the default since I rarely have to annotate.

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I use Soda PDF. The Reader is free and remarkably capable; and for a fee one can selectively add additional capabilities dependant upon your needs.

http://www.sodapdf.com/products/soda-8/

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