As written in my previous post, I have just finished installing a Server 2008 R2 to conduct a proof of concept. I have also some PDF documents that I will use for reference. So I was just about to install some PDF reader software, but then I thought, hey why “install” software, there must be something small out there that allows me reading a PDF file without having to install anything on my fresh installed server.

I’ve come across various portable applications, but at the end I found a really cool one called Cool PDF Reader, well neat would actually be the better word, as the executable only uses 651KB and does not require an install.

Cool PDF Reader is FREE and can be downloaded from here.

Yesterday evening I was reading Justin Rodino’s blog post “Dear Adobe, I Don’t Want Your Stupid Desktop Icon (nor your software anymore)” where he mentions the Foxit Reader which is an alternative PDF Reader.

Since the Adobe Reader has become the de facto standard for reading PDF files, most people don’t spend any thoughts on replacing it by another software product.  Personally I don’t have much of an issue with the desktop shortcut it creates (Justin does..), but I have always been wondering why the Adobe Reader has such a large footprint. A fresh install of the Adobe Reader 9.03 takes approx. 213 MB, when removing the Setup Files which are left in the application installation folder, the Reader still consumes 99 MB. To install Adobe Reader you must first download the Adobe Reader installer which is 27 MB.

To Install the Foxit Reader you must download the Setup package which is only 5.3 MB and once installed the Foxit Reader only uses 9.6 MB. In all fairness I did not look at the functionality differences of the two tools, well possible that the Adobe Reader does provide more functionality and therefore requires a larger footprint. However most of us use the Adobe Reader just to read PDF files and that is what the Foxit Reader allows you to do as well, with just a much smaller application footprint.

The Foxit Reader can be downloaded from here and a feature overview can be found here. The Foxit Reader is available for Windows, Linux, and Windows Mobile.