Remove "Please wait while the document is being prepared for reading" Message in Adobe Reader 8
This has been frustrating me for a while, ever since I got a new laptop with Adobe Reader 8 pre-installed on it. Every single time I open a PDF, no matter what size, I have to wait for the “Content Preparation Progress” dialog that tells me the document is being prepared for reading. I’m prepared to read the document, why isn’t my computer?
To remove this message, just open up the following folder, making sure you adjust the path if you installed to a different location:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\plug_ins
You should see a file called Accessibility.api in that folder. Remove the file… you can delete it or just move it somewhere else.
Now the next time you use Adobe Reader, you might get this one-time message. Just make sure you check the box, and it will go away forever.
And that’s all you have to do. No more annoying dialogs. Of course, you should be using Foxit Reader instead of Adobe anyway.
Thanks for this tip goes to ArsGeek, which is a great site for some really geeky content. He’s had some great Ubuntu articles over the last year.
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Thanks for the tip. I am working with Adobe 7.0 professional and do not see similar folders as “Reader”, “plug-ins” and the “accessibility” file. Any suggestions?
If all your doing is reading Pdf documents you don’t need 50+ mb of adobe reader clogging your hard-drive.
The easy answer is to uninstall the adobe version, and download ther foxit pdf reader – no installation and only 2mb in size…
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/
It’s also free.
martin,
You might notice that I had linked to Foxit already in the article =)
Either way, more links to Foxit can’t hurt!
oops! your right..sorry
and many thanks for the quick reply
This seems to work too:
1. Select Document – Accessibility Setup Assistant….
2. Select “Set all accesibility options”, click Next three times,
3. Select “Only read the currently visible pages”, click Next, and then Done.
In Adobe Reader 8.1 under Vista, this now results in
“Invalid plugin detected. Adobe Reader will quit.”
Then it quits and dies. I hate Adobe and will install Foxit instead.
Thanks for the tips … it worked 100%
I get “Invalid plugin detected. Adobe Reader will quit.” for 8.1 in XP
Alok Lathi:
Had the same problem, but in despair and hatred i tried to delete the accesibility.api file from this folder:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\plug_ins
That apparently worked for some reason
Good luck – otherwise try Benny’s idea.
Well, benny’s plan doesn’t seem to work in 7.0…
Well try my first idea again
Nope. Doesn’t work. Amazing from Adobe… They are loosing more and more users because of this kind of stupid features.
But may I suggest another free PDF reader: PDF-XChange Viewer. I got quite frustrated with Foxit as I’m copying a lot of pieces of text and Foxit often get the layout wrong (ex. reads the text over 2 columns), remove the spaces when copying, etc. XChange is great, can even save comments and sticky notes, with tab browsing (great to keep the same search terms between files for example) and still fairly fast to load (load even faster by drag’n drop instead of double-clicking).
Homepage: http://www.docu-track.com/news/show/62
I’ve also gotten the “Invalid plugin detected” error message. However, removing the files “MakeAccessible.api” and “ReadOutLoud.api” seemed to fix it. (8.1.1 win xp)
That solves it. Thanks Christopher !!!!!
Benny’s tip worked for me.
Long live handy sites eh;-)
Cheers
OMG – I was about to slap my laptop in the face – until I tried “remove make accesible” and IT WORKED!! Muchos gracias. Now I would like the programmer who came up with that gem of a feature to be made accessible – to my wrath! Adobe can really such when they want to – pity – they also have some great stuff..
Thanks for that. This thing is supper annoying for me! Abobe Reader is so bloated.
Thanks for recommending FoxitReader!
All I did is remove the folder plug_ins.
Removing “MakeAccessible.api” and “ReadOutLoud.api” didnt work for me (Win XP).
Removing the Accessibility.api is a bad resolution and certainly not the recommended one.
Open Adobe PDF and go to Advanced -> Accessibility -> Change Reading Options.
There choose the option “Read the currently visible pages only”. And voilá.
You can also press Ctrl+Shift+5
This is how a civilized person solves this problem.
THANK YOU SO MUCH – SAVED ME HOURS WITH THIS!
Chris saved the day xD thanks, that was really a slowdown!
Beeny’s method is ok
I cannot seem to remove My Abobe Reader[[I have e 2++ I must remove==or its a no work deal–How do I do that–Can delete programs–but Not remove==Please solve–Thank you. Diane Kropf
FOXIT Catch:
==========
The download is not w/o its problems. It requires you to signup for some other trial/other offers (not sure one or all 6). So you will land up committing to if nothing a risk for another exponential branch of spam emails.
This is just another form of exploitation.
Bottom line– there is nothing absolutely free.
Many people do not understand what Accessibility is. It’s not some random piece of bloatware that some bored software engineer came up with to torment you. One man’s bloat is another man’s feature.
Blind people need it to be able to “hear” documents. Adobe would run into significant trouble with the Americans with Disabilities Act if it didn’t incorporate the feature. The problem is that the feature turns on automatically if you have screen reading turned on (it won’t happen if you install on a clean install of Windows).
Software systems are very complex, and frequently people turn on things that they don’t want.
Hi,
Unfortunately, after trying this trick and opening a pdf, it comes up with the message, “invalid plug-in detected. Adobe Reader will quit”.
After pressing OK, it says “The instruction at “0×2d830cbc” referenced memory at “0×00000008″. The memory could not be “read”. Click on OK to terminate the program.”
The solution you give is not necessary, and you should take it down. Adobe already has the option to turn s this off under preferneces, it just isn’t labelled very clearly.
If you want to fix it without breaking Reader, do it the correct way:
1. Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Reading
2. Under “Screen Reader Options”, select “Only read the currently visible pages”
Wahoo! Cheers!
Thanks. This saved me from alot of frustration. It works for Adobe Standard as well…
Thanks for that, I now get a ‘invalid plugin detected’ followed by a GPF and I now have to download adobe again.
Again, well done.
Try this.
Go to accessibility > change reading options > change the reading order to “use reading order to raw print stream “
Different Strokes.
I’m all for being civilized, but when civility fails, give me a sledge hammer.
Changing the Reader Option to “Only read the currently visible pages” actually made the problem worse.
Removing “Accessibility.api” worked like a charm.
You’re the man. Thanks for the tip, it worked great.
This trick works for Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 as well!