# How do I shut off Adobe Updater? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555 "2009-10-12T18:08:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/1 "2009-10-12T18:08:04Z")
This thing drives me nuts. Every time I open a document, it pops up. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/2 "2009-10-12T18:56:53Z")
It’s even worse for me. If I don’t catch the pop-up when I boot up and shut it off quickly enough, my computer crashes. I’ve tried everything I can think of. I hate this thing, and wish I had never updated to the latest version earlier this year. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Captain\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/3 "2009-10-12T20:28:16Z")
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5 or \Updater6 Run Adobe\_Updater.exe -\> preferences -\> deselect ‘automatically check for Adobe updates’ Program preferences also include an option to disable automatic updates. For Adobe Reader look under edit -\> preferences -\> general -\> deselect ‘check for updates’ **John Mace** if you can’t get this far, try doing so with your internet connection disabled. If the updater still crashes then disable it via start -\> run -\> ‘msconfig’ -\> startup. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/4 "2009-10-12T20:51:15Z")
> [@Captain\_Awesome](#): > > C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5 or \Updater6 > > Run Adobe\_Updater.exe -\> preferences -\> deselect ‘automatically check for Adobe updates’ > > Program preferences also include an option to disable automatic updates. For Adobe Reader look under edit -\> preferences -\> general -\> deselect ‘check for updates’ > > **John Mace** if you can’t get this far, try doing so with your internet connection disabled. If the updater still crashes then disable it via start -\> run -\> ‘msconfig’ -\> startup. Thanks. I just figured out where this was and deleted the entire Updater5 folder. If it causes problems, I’ll just do a reinstall, but so far it’s all good. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/5 "2009-10-13T00:39:52Z")
Any idea how to do this on a Mac? I don’t have any trouble with the updater that occasionally launches with Acrobat Reader, but every time I launch Photoshop Elements 6 the updater runs and claims I need to update something called “Adobe Raw 4” (or something like that), then goes through the whole downloading process, attempts to update, and then informs me that it can’t find the thing it’s supposed to be updating. (I have some suspicion the problem might be related to the fact I used to have the full, professional version of Photoshop installed. When I moved a few years ago, my installation was no longer covered by the “family pack” license I was using, so I deleted Photoshop and purchased the Elements version for myself. I wonder if there are a few bits and pieces of the full version still lurking about my system.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/6 "2009-10-13T01:25:07Z")
> [@Captain\_Awesome](#): > > C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5 or \Updater6 > > Run Adobe\_Updater.exe -\> preferences -\> deselect ‘automatically check for Adobe updates’ > > Program preferences also include an option to disable automatic updates. For Adobe Reader look under edit -\> preferences -\> general -\> deselect ‘check for updates’ > > **John Mace** if you can’t get this far, try doing so with your internet connection disabled. If the updater still crashes then disable it via start -\> run -\> ‘msconfig’ -\> startup. Thanks. I’ll try that. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Captain\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/7 "2009-10-13T02:11:25Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Any idea how to do this on a Mac? For Mac OSX I believe the updater is found via /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Utilities/Adobe Updater5/. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/8 "2009-10-13T02:32:23Z")
Easiest way to avoid Adobe Acrobat Reader Update Whining: I don’t use Acrobat or Reader. For a Mac, I simply use Preview which comes with the Mac. It’s faster and doesn’t pester me about upgrading or if I want to buy the pro version. For Windows, I use Foxit which is again faster and not as noisy about updates. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/9 "2009-10-13T02:38:55Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > For a Mac, I simply use Preview which comes with the Mac. It’s faster and doesn’t pester me about upgrading or if I want to buy the pro version. I used to use Preview, until I started needing to _print_ some PDFs. For some unknown reason, Preview kept substituting something that looked like Impact in place of the much more delicate, appealing font the document actually used, and nothing I did corrected the problem. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/10 "2009-10-13T06:44:39Z")
I believe they have started forcing the install of adobe updater (as well as two supremely crappy “download manager” browser components) as part of flash as well. Unfortunately, flash has become the de facto standard for web-based video, so “just don’t use it” isn’t a very good answer right now. I am curious to see if they continue this trend of making their software more and more annoying and intrusive until they become RealPlayer. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Awesome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Captain\_Awesome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Awesome)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/11 "2009-10-13T07:46:14Z")
> [@ntucker](#): > > I am curious to see if they continue this trend of making their software more and more annoying and intrusive until they become RealPlayer. It is difficult not to see it as some sort of perverted trend. I think that Adobe and iTunes are actively trying to outdo each other in disenfranchising users with forced updates, bundled additional programs, and unnecessary services. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/12 "2009-10-13T13:39:19Z")
> [@ntucker](#): > > I believe they have started forcing the install of adobe updater (as well as two supremely crappy “download manager” browser components) as part of flash as well. Unfortunately, flash has become the de facto standard for web-based video, so “just don’t use it” isn’t a very good answer right now. I am curious to see if they continue this trend of making their software more and more annoying and intrusive until they become RealPlayer. Adobe got there about 4 years ago for me. Thank god for Foxit Reader. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/13 "2009-10-13T20:31:29Z")
Adobe Reader is another one of those programs that thinks it’s the most important thing on your system. I hate it when I shut down my PC and Adobe pops up saying that I have one or more PDFs open, am I sure I want to close them? Why yes, yes I do, they’re read-only documents, what could it possibly hurt?!? ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/14 "2009-10-14T05:19:09Z")
> [@ntucker](#): > > I believe they have started forcing the install of adobe updater (as well as two supremely crappy “download manager” browser components) as part of flash as well. Unfortunately, flash has become the de facto standard for web-based video, so “just don’t use it” isn’t a very good answer right now. I am curious to see if they continue this trend of making their software more and more annoying and intrusive until they become RealPlayer. It hasn’t happened for a while (crosses fingers) but I was getting the “Download Manager” installation program every hour or two for quite a while. Does anybody have an alternative (preferably open-source) Flash player that will run movies and games? I browsed around [sourceforge](http://sourceforge.net/), but most of their stuff seems to be either development tools or server software. ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-shut-off-adobe-updater/513555/15 "2009-10-14T05:55:21Z")
> [@rjk](#): > > It hasn’t happened for a while (crosses fingers) but I was getting the “Download Manager” installation program every hour or two for quite a while. > > Does anybody have an alternative (preferably open-source) Flash player that will run movies and games? I browsed around [sourceforge](http://sourceforge.net/), but most of their stuff seems to be either development tools or server software. There’s [Gnash](http://gnashdev.org/), which as far as I know is available for all the common OSs. It is also, last I heard, not there yet, as in it performs poorly (though it’s getting better and better). You could give it a shot, but I use the proprietary Flash plugin because, last time I tried to use Gnash (which was about a year ago), it did not work well.