Is it not possible to just download the full installer of the current version? Or does that one also fail?

If you want an alternative to Adobe Reader Sumatra PDF reader has a version for Win XP, Win 7 , Win 8, Win 10 and Win 11.

Just tried downloading a new file from Adobe's site, but that failed to install.

The download site doesn't even offer the latest version, it's the one before.

And lastly, if you go through the automatic upgrade process, you can get a screen when you click Install to do that, but it also has a Details link, which is a 404.

They have a lot of bugs to sort out.

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/end-of-sup … -32-bit-os.html
Apparently they dropped 32-bit support more than 2 years ago?
Maybe it's a miracle it worked so long.

Ah... I was completely unaware that they had stopped support. I knew they had stopped supporting windows 7 long ago, even though the updates still keep coming - but I assumed that windows 10 would be supported in all its forms.

The Acrobat (32-bit) installers are available for download but will not be tested or supported on 32-bit operating systems.

The fact that it isn't tested is now painfully obvious. The failures are quite random though - the machines are largely the same in what hardware is used, what software is installed, what updates they have, etc - so why it works on a few and not the rest is a mystery.

It's been a while since I have had Adobe Reader on any of my machines, there were always better alternatives such as early versions of Foxit and Sumatra. PDF-XChange viewer is what I have been using for decades on all my Windows computers. The main advantage PDF-XChange has over Sumatra is the ability to fill in and save PDF forms.

I know OP said no off-topic remarks, but, I've also given up on Adobe a while ago. I figured I like PDF-XChange Editor, still comes in 32-bit. Unsure about current OS support, but they kept XP support until about 2019 (up-to version 7).

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowledgebase/399 … -for-Windows-XP

Robbbert wrote on 2025-10-28, 11:13:

Ah... I was completely unaware that they had stopped support. I knew they had stopped supporting windows 7 long ago, even though the updates still keep coming - but I assumed that windows 10 would be supported in all its forms.

The fact that it isn't tested is now painfully obvious. The failures are quite random though - the machines are largely the same in what hardware is used, what software is installed, what updates they have, etc - so why it works on a few and not the rest is a mystery.

Out of interests what was the latest version you have working? Looks like version 25.001.20756 is the last version Adobe offer.
I'd be grabbing the offline version of 25.001.20756 and maybe whatever version you did get as well.

That said even on supported systems Reader has been unstable for ages now. Only reason to use it is if you get documents that use some feature that lock it into using Adobe

Well since I have been provided the answer, you may as well suggest alternatives now - no longer OT.

I had Sumatra long ago, but it just didn't work out, so switched to Adobe since it's the original PDF program. I didn't like it when they added the cloud stuff, so I usually disable that (and no, it makes no difference to updating).

But since they won't support 32-bit any more, and I have a lot of 32-bit machines, I can either leave it as is, or switch to Acrobat 11, or switch to some other competitor. The main thing I need is for it to work on all documents, and allow me to add comments.

Adobe is rather renown for bugs, one particularly bad one was on the Windows 10 64-bit I have here, it's offline, and the cloud part kept crashing - every 30 seconds. Incredibly annoying.

@chinny22

We posted at the same time, so to answer your question:

Windows 10 last working version was 20180. The windows 7 machines last working are various versions: 20320, 20415, 20531, 20566, and 20577. It's a random choice per machine. That's what's so annoying - there's no pattern.

Now while 20756 is the last one on offer, the actual latest version is 20813, which you can get by asking it to update itself - providing it works.

Here is a link to offline patches themselves should you still want to go down that route.
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/ … esDC/index.html

My own PDF requirments are pretty basic with the web brows viewing and save as pdf functionalililty being enough. So cant give any recomendations I'm afraid.
As does work with a paid program "PowerPDF" for anyone needing more and only in the rare ocasions where a doucmument refues any alternitve.

A new update (20844) and another machine failed.

So, I'm starting to disable the automatic update service (armsvc.exe) on the 32-bit machines, as it's annoying to get a popup about the failure every day.

Robbbert wrote on 2025-11-07, 12:29:

So, I'm starting to disable the automatic update service (armsvc.exe) on the 32-bit machines, as it's annoying to get a popup about the failure every day.

Good riddance!

I've been doing that since the Windows XP days. One less startup process to slow down boot up times.

At some point, I even had Adobe Reader X crash on my systems. According to online posts that I saved, this only happened on XP SP3 (and older)... but I think I remember it happening on some Windows 7 (32-bit) machines as well. In any case, the suggested solution was to block acroipm.adobe.com in the hosts file... which worked for me. Of course, this really only works consistently if the Windows DNS service is disabled - something that can only be (easily) done on XP and 7. With Windows 10, starting with version... I'm not sure which, but pretty early on... it's rather difficult to disable the DNS service. Basically, by not being able to have DNS service disabled, the hosts file in Windows 10/11 is pretty much useless at this point. So trying to block any traffic with that doesn't really work anymore. So the suggested fix above is really only applicable to Windows XP and 7 (and Vista... anyone??? 🤣 )

Like the others here, it's also been a while since I last put Adobe Reader on any PC.
I get by with SumatraPDF for the PDF -reading part. And if I need to fill any forms and save, I just use my browser - in this case, the latest version of Firefox ESR since I'm pretty much running Windows 7 machines only (with a few XP machines in between... but those get other browsers.)
On occasion, I've also used (and old version of) Adobe Photoshop to edit PDF's. It's not exactly the right tool for the job... but if you play around a little and match the fonts of the document, you can do some pretty legit-looking edits. 🤣
PS is like a Swiss army knife for my PCs - I rarely forgo installing it on any machine I care to use myself. And that's really the only Adobe product I consider relevant (to me) anymore.

I'm starting to suspect it's a repeat of the Adobe Flash situation. That program had insecurities due to poor programming, mainly buffer overruns and the like. Despite struggling with it for ages, they could not fix the issues, so they just cancelled it instead. All they had to do was hire someone who was actually competent for a week to fix it.

So I guess that this install program started randomly playing up, and rather than fix it, they've just said it's unsupported and so washed their hands of the problem.

------

Anyway, here's the list of latest versions per OS, that I know of.

win 3.1x - 3.0.1
win 95 - 5.5 SP2
win98 - 5
win98se - 6
winnt - 5
win2k - 9
XP, Vista - 11
Win7 and up - DC (current version for 64-bit).

Are you sure? I've a few differences in my "Final Version" list but I could be wrong as tend to favor 5.05 on anything Pre XP anyway

Win95/Win98 FE - 5.05
Win98 SE/WinME - 6.06

NT 3.51 - 4.05
NT4 - 6.06
Win2k - 9.5.5
WinXP 11 aka XI

I did say "that I know of", as I didn't test every variation, just the ones that I have or were already installed.

As for the update service, disabling it does precisely nothing - updates still run. So I renamed the folder where the update programs live. I'll see if that makes a difference.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\ARM\1.0 - I renamed the "1.0" part to "1.0xxx".

EDIT: It recreated the "1.0" folder and kicked off armsvc.exe again, so now I've told my virus scanner to not allow that file to start.

Last time I used Adobe Reader was around V4. Not only was it a target for various exploits but later versions were difficult to un-install prompting me to use competing products. I recommend against it and as others have pointed out there are better alternatives that require no installation.

The other thing about Acrobat DC is this unwanted, unasked-for cloud interface. The reader is solid, but both the installer and the cloud part are flaky as hell.

Unless you actually sign on to Adobe or use the cloud, I'd advise to disable all that, by renaming or deleting the se files:

AdobeCollabSync.exe
ADNotificationManager.exe
RdrCEF.exe (there's 2 of these, you need to do both)

If you subsequently get a successful update, you'll get new files so you'll have to do it all again. Or, if your virus scanner allows blocking of executables, add rules to block these files.

Adobe reader failing sounds like an improvement to me.

Try out Foxit Reader.