TechNote

Acrobat product interoperability: Install and remove Acrobat and Adobe Reader (9.x on Windows)

What's covered

• Coexisting installations
• Version interoperability
• Upgrade eligibility

Coexisting installations

Although you can install Adobe Acrobat 9.x or Adobe Reader 9.x on a computer that contains an installation of previous Acrobat versions, it is not recommended. Acrobat 9.x Professional and Acrobat 9.x Standard use the Acrobat 9.x version of PDFMaker and Adobe PDF printer. When two or more versions of Acrobat are installed on the same computer, removing one version of Acrobat may disable functionality.

If two versions of Acrobat are installed on the same computer, only the Acrobat 8.0.x version of PDFMaker and Adobe PDF printer will be used, although conflicts may occurs if multiple version PDFMaker files are attempting to load.

When multiple versions of Acrobat exist on a machine, the running version will be used to display PDF files regardless of the preferences.

Removing previous versions of Acrobat or Adobe Reader after you install a more recent version can disable functionality. Repair the current version of Acrobat after removing the previous version. If the repair process does not restore all functionality, reinstall the current version.

Note: Adobe Technical Support does not recommend or support having multiple versions of Acrobat or Adobe Reader installed on the same machine (for example Acrobat 8, with Adobe Reader 9 or Acrobat 7 with Adobe Reader 8). Acrobat and Adobe Reader have numerous components that have similar functionality and can cause conflicts on a machine. The most prevalent among these conflicts involves the plug-ins for rendering PDF files in the browser, PDFMaker inside of Office Applications, and the Adobe PDF printer. Using the Version Interoperability table below, remove all versions of Acrobat and Adobe Reader, and then install the current version.

Version interoperability

This chart shows what will happen if you install Adobe Acrobat 8.0.x when the computer already has Acrobat or Adobe Reader installed.

• Allowed indicates that this state will function and should not generate any error messages.
• Replace indicates that the new version will replace the original version with no option to remove the original version.
• Repair indicates that you are trying to install a version of Acrobat or Adobe Reader that is already installed on your computer, and the installer allows you to modify, repair, or remove the program.
• Rec Removal indicates that you should cancel the installation of Acrobat 8.0.x and remove the older version, reboot, and then install Acrobat 8.0.x
• Rec Auto Removal indicates that you will receive a warning indicating that an older version has been encountered. You can remove the older version or ignore it and have Acrobat and Adobe Reader coexist.
• Required Auto Removal indicates that you will receive a warning that an older or less functional product has been detected. You can remove the less functional product or cancel the installation.
• Manually Remove indicates that you must quit the installer, remove the version of Acrobat or Adobe Reader that is currently installed, and then install Acrobat 8.0.x.

Upgrade eligibility

The following products do not qualify for an upgrade to Acrobat 9:

• Acrobat 5.x or earlier
• Acrobat Elements
• Acrobat Business Tools
• Acrobat Approval
• Adobe Reader
• Acrobat Reader
• Acrobat Reader-Writer
• Acrobat Distiller PE or LE, or any version of Acrobat Distiller that's bundled with Adobe PageMaker or Adobe FrameMaker

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