Ever since upgrading to Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.1 when opening PDF files within Internet Explorer the following message appears: ?There is a problem with Adobe Acrobat/Reader. Please exit Adobe Acrobat/Reader and try again? which is followed by the message ?Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permission to access the item?. That said, some PDF files on websites can be properly accessed as can PDF files attached to email messages. This problem does not occur when using Mozilla Firefox, but I prefer Internet Explorer and thus would like to resolve this problem.

This will be quite a tricky error message to diagnose, since the message is rather economical with its explanation of exactly what is going wrong (apart from saying that there is a “problem” with Acrobat Reader accessing something on your computer). As the problem does not occur when viewing PDF files attached to email messages, this indicates that Acrobat Reader itself is working correctly. Rather the problem occurs when viewing PDF files within Internet Explorer, indicating that the problem relates to the use of Acrobat Reader within Internet Explorer. That said, this problem is even more mysterious as you can access some PDF files through Internet Explorer. In any case, as a starting point try completely uninstalling Acrobat Reader. This should be done through the “Start” menu > “Control Panel” > “Add or Remove Programs” control panel. If you have multiple versions of Acrobat Reader installed make sure that all versions are uninstalled, as they can conflict amongst themselves. Once Acrobat Reader has been uninstalled, restart the computer. After the computer has restarted, open Internet Explorer and visit Windows Update (windowsupdate.microsoft.com) to download and install the latest updates for your computer, which may include updates for Internet Explorer, which resolve the problem. Once all the relevant Windows Updates have been installed, download the latest version of Acrobat Reader (www.adobe.com) which was version 8.1.1 at the time of writing. Once downloaded, install Acrobat Reader and check whether the problem persists.

Should the problem persist a potential workaround is to disable the display of PDF files within the web browser window. At the moment, when you attempt to open a PDF file by clicking a link within a web page, the PDF file attempts to open within the Internet Explorer. Instead, we can make the PDF file open within a separate Acrobat Reader window. Close any open instances of Internet Explorer and then open the Acrobat Reader program (which can usually be accessed through the Start menu). In Acrobat Reader go to the “Edit” menu > “Preferences” and click the “Internet” page. Untick “Display PDF in browser” and click OK then close Acrobat Reader. Open Internet Explorer and try to view a PDF file to see whether it opens correctly. You will notice that the PDF file opens within a separate Acrobat Reader window. Therefore, this is more a workaround than a complete fix for the problem.

However, should all else fail, you could downgrade Acrobat Reader to a previous version which works better with your computer. To do this, on the Acrobat Reader download page where it automatically detects your computer operating system, and suggests the version of Acrobat Reader which you should download, click the “Different language or operating system”? link. On the next page, ensure that Windows XP English is selected and click “Continue”. From here, you can download either Acrobat Reader versions 8.1.1, 7.0.9, or 6.0.1. This may allow you to re-download the previous version of Acrobat Reader which did work correctly, prior to the upgrade.