Windows 7 Adobe Reader 9 browser plug-in doesn't work

It's 2010, and I'm still getting the same blank error screen when trying to open a PDF document in a browser window with Windows 7 and any browser (IE8, Firefox, etc.). Here is what the box looks like:



To help describe my situation, I am creating PDF documents on the fly through PHP. I've been doing this for years without a problem until today, when I freshly installed Windows 7 on this computer. Now, the above blank error message pops up completely at random. Sometimes, the PDF opens fine; sometimes it shows the blank error box and doesn't show anything. I have tried opening the same PDF document every time as a constant, and it does work sometimes, so I know the PDF does work some of the time.

I tried reinstalling Adobe Reader 9.3 - no luck.
I tried uninstalling Adobe.com and Adobe AIR - no luck.
I tried clearing the browser cache - no luck.
I tried changing some of the headers through PHP - no luck.

Are we just SOL with this problem? I can't believe Adobe or MS hasn't fixed this yet. This is incredibly annoying.

That does sound rather annoying... I had a quick look through Adobes site to see if anything looked remotely like a solution but I didn't see one. I did find however the link for the 'Adobe Reader support forum' which may be of more help?

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Thanks so much for the link, kemical. I'll try over there as well. It's funny...when I click on the "View PDF" link that they provide for each discussion, the PDF opens in the browser just fine every time (I tried 10 times in a row). I'm wondering if this problem is coming from the header() being defined incorrectly through PHP or something like that...

As Adobe is bloatware, I'd suggest download this free app:

Foxit Software - Downloads

It's only a single execuatable, but has more features than Adobe Reader itself and it's not riddled with security problems lik wAdobe Reader.

Chwck these links
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Great idea Jim.. I forgot to mention foxit.

Using a program like Foxit might benefit me personally, but if there is a way to fix Adobe Reader (which 99% of my users are using) or a way to fix the way I am building PDF documents, I would much prefer that. I've posted at Adobe's forums, so maybe a developer or someone can figure out why Adobe Reader is being so stupid. Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

No worries John, let's hope your post brings forth results..

Have a solution to anyone still getting these problems using firefox:

Tools > Options > Application Tab > Where you see all the adobe content types change action to 'use adobe reader 9.1'.

Helped me as I was presenting using 'use adobe acrobat'.

Hope it helps someone as I made an a/c just to post this