How did I get Adobe Acrobat--without even trying?

Factual Questions
1

I have a new computer with Windows XP. I installed MS Office 2000, and Acrobat Reader 6.0 (among many other things). However, I have never owned Acrobat. I just noticed that when I printed a Word document, one of the printers is an Acrobat PDFWriter. It works–it generates a PDF document. It also shows up in my Control Panel > Printers. It appears to be available in all apps, not just MS Office.

I thought you had to pay a lot of bucks to get this, and not only did I get it for nothing, I can’t even figure out how it got there.

Huh? :confused:

2

So how did you install MS Office and Acrobat exactly?

Did you use bonafide OEM installation CDs? Or something else?

3

I doubt you really have acrobat installed. There are a number of shareware and adware utilities that can add the functionality to print to PDF without the full functionality of Acrobat.

4

<cough>

Therefore, it’s more likely that something else you installed, like printer drivers or graphics software, added this functionality.

5

If it’s really called “Acrobat PDFWriter,” it can’t be some shareware product. That name is associated only with the “real” Adobe Acrobat package. My shareware PDF creator, for example, shows up as a printer called “pdf995.”

According to the Adobe website, the writer comes with the full package. There’s no indication that it’s available as a freebie. So, we still have a mystery, here!

6

In fact, this page from Adobe explicitly says that PDFWriter is not available as a standalone component!

7

You didn’t notice if it was there before installing office? I have to wonder if whoever sold you the computer put it on there for some reason or other…perhaps not a legit copy even - maybe they have something against adobe and wanna make them pay by giving away their software to customers free!

8

I got it along with Adobe PhotoDeluxe when I bought my digital camera.

9

Are you sure the full version didn’t come with your computer as part of the included software? It did with the one I bought last night, as well as one I bought about 6 months ago. Dell at least does it all the time.

10

I have a Dell Dimensions 2400, so if Dell does this all the time, maybe that’s the answer. If so, I am surprised I hadn’t noticed it earlier than this, I bought it about two months ago.

All the software that I installed myself was also installed on my previous IBM Aptiva, and none of that caused Acrobat PDFWriter to be installed.

Office was installed from an OEM CD. I downloaded Acrobat Reader 6.0 from Adobe’s web site.

If any adware installs this it would come as a surprise to me, I can’t imagine it being to anyone’s advantage. But I definitely pick up adware–though I routinely scrub it off with Spybot.

11

Not all adware is bad.

Some of it is benign free software that shows you a banner ad, and people install it willingly and knowingly. A different animal from spyware.

Here is an example.

12

Ok, I understand the Viewer to be freeware… Yeah, it has small one line, or one toolbar button to Adobe, but I would’nt consider it adware… or spyware. So now I am Confused, do you have the viewer or more than just the viewer?