While I respect the platform diversity of .pdf files, I really don't know of a Windows (Vista) reader that I'm happy to live with.

I'm quite keen to keep bloat on this PC to a minimum and I don't need a sysTray thingy to open .pdf files quicker, and I don't particularly want a .pdf reader where I can't tell it to sleep for a while without nagging me about updating either. Sure, I suppose I could install the free Adobe Reader and then manually remove the startup items it graces my system with, but I'd really rather not.

Maybe I should just "get a life" and install the free shit that most Windows users accept? Of late, I've been saving .pdf files on a LAN PC and opening them from there.

I normally head for Sourceforge.net in these situations, marvel at Linux for a while, then find a Windows compromise. It ain't happened for me this time... any suggestions, please?

FoxIt Reader?

Ummm, I'm about to get my free Foxit Reader "after we receive confirmation from eBay New User within 1 day". Using me@here.com - just clicked through all that BS. Do you use Foxit reader yourself?

Perhaps I was too hasty throwing a non-existent email address at them? After all they were only chasing a few cents from an honest referral - I'll probably revisit this with an accessible email address and see if get something useful.

Thanks for the pointer.

I think you're going to the wrong place. I think you clicked on the "get the Pro Pack for Free" link. Download the app here.

Here's one man's opinion on free readers.
Bitt's suggestion is at the top of the three he reviews:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/more/extended.htm#66

Foxit is great very small and fast. The one problem I have is some images are not centered when viewed with it and they are in acrobat.

FoxIt is the way to go. It's far faster than Acrobat.

To create/manipulate/convert PDFs, I've been using PDF Creator. It's not great, but it does the trick, and it's free.

Thanks, Bitt. Not sure how I managed to wander off of the beaten track here. Foxit is pretty slick and while it's early days for me I'm very happy with it so far.

Foxit is great, Sumatra is seriously fast and lightweight - give that a go too.

How did Acrobat become such a monster? Does a PDF reader really need to be so huge?

PrimoPDF is a free PDF creator that I like a lot. Its simple, and it works!

Dunno. I could go downstairs and ask them. I don't think they'd take kindly to it, though.

I double dog dare you.

I came across a new one: PDF X-Change Viewer. Not only is it faster than Acrobat, it has a lot of nice features, including some nice markup capabilities, a built-in screencap utility, and the ability to export to other image types, and those are just the ones that I've used in less than a week.