[ale] switching to foxit for pdf viewing with or without adobe as backup

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi all,

(Ignore the fact that some program names are not capitalized.  I just 
didn't want to mess with it.)

Because of all the security problems with Adobe reader, I decided to 
switch to foxit for pdf viewing rather than adobe, but I wanted to keep 
adobe as a backup for more complex pdf files.  This sounds easy, but 
it's not as easy as you might think to get it working right.  Also, the 
foxit installer does not set up everything correctly and securely in 
this case.  I thought I'd share my experience in case anyone is wanting 
to do the same thing.  For my purposes, I prefer not to view pdf's in 
the browser, but to have the reader pop up.  I have the configuration 
set for this.

(Warning, for security reasons, if you do have Adobe Reader on your 
system, and you intend to keep it, go into its preferences and turn off 
javascript before doing the following procedures, since Adobe reader 
could start up by mistake.  This post tells how to configure Foxit, not 
Adobe.  There are a number of other settings to configure Adobe reader 
for safety which are not documented here.  I can list those if anyone 
has a need for it.)

What I did here is on Windows, but almost everything applies to Linux 
too, but some of the procedures would be different.  Some of the Linux 
gurus can tell how to do those things that are different.

NOTE: YOU MUST DO ALL THESE PROCEDURES, OTHER THAN FOXIT INSTALLATION, 
ON EACH USER LOGIN.

You can get the foxit reader here:

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/

Install it according to the normal procedures for your system.

You are NOT done, at this point.  You just think you are.

Start the foxit reader.

Go into the preferences screen and check / set the following tabs / 
settings:

      File Associations page:
           Click the make default PDF viewer button (just to double 
check), click OK
           CHECK always perform check when starting foxit reader
           UNCHECK (per your preference) display pdf in browser

      General page: (not security related, but are my preferences)
           UNCHECK make hand tool select text
           UNCHECK auto hide status bar
           UNCHECK show start page

      JavaScript page: (note this defaults to a LESS secure setting)
           UNCHECK enable javascript actions

      Trust Manager page: (this will default to what you set during install)
           CHECK enable safe reading mode

      Updater page: (these are my preferences)
           SELECT automatically install updates

Save the settings and exit foxit.

Start firefox.

Go into the settngs screen with tools options or edit preferences and 
the applications sub tab.  Here is where you set certain things to 
happen when a certain file type is encountered.  Set the following:

Content type: Foxit Reader PDF Document (may say Adobe instead of Foxit, 
will only be there if Adobe is installed)
Action: Use Foxit Reader

Content type: Portable Document Format (PDF) (this should be there 
regardless)
Action: Use Foxit Reader

Make sure both of these are set to Use Foxit Reader.

Save the settings.

Go to the tools, addons screen.  Select plugins.

If you use Flash, you should see Shockwave Flash.  This should be enabled.

If you use Adobe Reader, you should see Adobe Acrobat.  Disable this.

Shut down firefox and restart.  Go back into tools, addons and verify 
that Adobe Acrobat is disabled.

Exit firefox.

The following is windows centric.  However, if you deal with any windows 
machines, this is important to know.  The part after IE would apply to 
linux too, but the procedures would be different.  This applies to IE 
8.  I don't know about IE 9 or 10.

It turns out it's a bit convoluted to get IE NOT to start up Adobe 
reader.  Go into tools, manage addons.  Click the toolbars and 
extensions tab.  Then, on the lower left, there is a drop down box 
labeled show:.  Set that to "all addons".

You would think that would show you all addons, but it doesn't.  I'll 
come back to that.

Review the list of addons on the right.

Look for adobe pdf link helper.  Click on it and disable it with the 
button on the lower right.

Look for adobe pdf reader.  Click on it and disable it with the button 
on the lower right.

You may see a shockwave flash addon.  That's OK if you're running flash, 
and you can leave it enabled.

Think you're done.  Wrong.

IE hides some addons from you.

Go back to the show: box on the lower left and set it to "run without 
permission".

Look again at the list and find adobe pdf link helper and adobe pdf 
reader, whether or not you found them before, and verify that they're 
both disabled, or disable them if you have to.

Close the window.

Go back into the screen and check the settings again.

Close IE.

If you're running on a 64 bit Windows system, there is also an IE64.  
Open that up and do the same steps.

The last step is to set a file association at the system level to link 
PDF files with the Foxit reader.  You would think the installer would do 
this, and it might, but I'd recommend checking it.  This procedure 
applies to Windows 7.  Some of you linux guys jump in and tell us how to 
do this on linux.  When I get around to it, I'll try it on my Mint 13 
vm, but that may be a while.

Go to control panel and click default programs.  On the window that pops 
up, click "associate a file type or protocol with a program".

Look for a line that says .pdf.  It may already say Foxit Reader, but if 
it doesn't, change it to Foxit Reader.

Close this window.

(If you were running Windows XP, you could right click on a PDF file, 
click open with, and choose Foxit Reader.  On that same window, there is 
a box you check that says to always use this program for this file type.)

Now, your configuration should be done, FOR THIS USER LOGIN.

Now, time to test it.

Close all instances of Foxit, Adobe, Firefox, and IE.

-----------------------

Test phase 1: System File Association

Copy a PDF file to your desktop for testing.

Double click on this file.  Foxit reader should start up and display the 
file.  Go into the preferences screen for Foxit and verify that the 
settings you set before are still there.  They should be the same.  
Close Foxit.

If Foxit DIDN'T open up when you double clicked the PDF file, there is a 
problem with the file association at the system level.

--------------------

Test phase 2: Firefox and Web PDF Links

Start firefox.  Navigate to any web page where you can click on a link 
to a PDF file.

You can go here, for example:

http://www.computerpoweruser.com

This site requires flash to work.  It will display info about the 
current issue of the magazine.  (Great magazine, by the way.)

Over toward the left is an arrow pointing down.  Click this to download 
the magazine pdf file.  Another window pops up and asks what format you 
want.  Click the PDF button on this window.

If you are asked to open or save the file, click open.

At this point, a DOWNLOAD should start.  After that's done, Foxit Reader 
should start up and display the file.  Unless you intentionally checked 
display in browser, this should be the separate reader program, and not 
the browser plugin.

Under no circumstances should Adobe Reader start up, nor Adobe Reader 
plugin.  If adobe starts up, there is a problem on the firefox 
applications configuration screen.

Close firefox.

----------------------

Test phase 3: IE32 and Web PDF Links

Start IE32

Go to a web link for a PDF as above.

At this point, a DOWNLOAD should start.  After that's done, Foxit Reader 
should start up and display the file.  Unless you intentionally checked 
display in browser, this should be the separate reader program, and not 
the browser plugin.

Under no circumstances should Adobe Reader start up, nor Adobe Reader 
plugin.  If adobe starts up, there is a problem on the IE addons, 
toolbars and extensions page.

Close IE32.

-------------------

Test phase 4: IE64 and Web PDF Links (if applicable)

Start IE64

Go to a web link for a PDF as above.

At this point, a DOWNLOAD should start.  After that's done, Foxit Reader 
should start up and display the file.  Unless you intentionally checked 
display in browser, this should be the separate reader program, and not 
the browser plugin.

Under no circumstances should Adobe Reader start up, nor Adobe Reader 
plugin.  If adobe starts up, there is a problem on the IE addons, 
toolbars and extensions page.

Close IE64.

-----------------

This completes the testing.

To summarize, you should have:

1) double clicked a pdf on the desktop, foxit reader displays it, check 
all settings
2) clicked a pdf link in firefox, foxit reader displays it after download
3) clicked a pdf link in IE32, foxit reader displays it after download
4) clicked a pdf link in IE64, foxit reader displays it after download

At no time should any Adobe product other than flash start up.  However, 
if you kept it on the system like I did, you could open it up manually 
to view a more complex pdf file that foxit doesn't like, if any.

You may wish to find the Adobe icon on your desktop and move it into the 
start menu or into a folder.  That way, you'll get used to clicking on 
Foxit instead.  You may wish to also remove the Adobe icon from the 
quick launch toolbar.  However, keep an icon somewhere so you can get 
back to it.

On my Windows XP machine, nothing I could do would prevent the Adobe 
reader plugin from starting when I clicked a web PDF link in IE.  So, I 
uninstalled Adobe Reader on that machine and left only Foxit.  I have no 
idea why this was the case.  On the one Vista machine that I've tried 
this on, this procedure worked even though Adobe Reader is still 
installed.  I still have 3 Windows 7 machines to retrofit as well as all 
my Linux installs.  I also have to migrate all linux installs to Mint13, 
so that's a project for another day, or week.  I may completely remove 
Adobe Reader on a family member's machine to prevent confusion.  He 
hardly ever reads PDF's anyway.

Now that you've done all this on one login, go and REPEAT IT ON EACH 
USER LOGIN.

Hope you find this helpful.

Sincerely,

Ron


-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com