Adobe Reader Errors While Installing it on Vista

Adobe Reader Errors While Installing it on Vista

Among the applications I install on my computer the one that frequently used is Adobe Acrobat Reader. I think this is the case for many people. After you have downloaded the application you have to double-click the executable file and allow the wizard to start.

Though, in some circumstances, when installing Adobe Acrobat Reader on Windows Vista the following error message can come up:
The Temp folder is on a drive that is full or is inaccessible. Free up space on the drive or verify that you have write permission on the Temp folder.

As trying to find a answer to this error I found out that the reason for the error and a way around it that allowed me to install Adobe Acrobat Reader without any problem and you don't have to use a registry cleaner to fix the error.

The reason for the error

I usually have a tendency to right away disable User Account Control (or UAC) as one of the first tweaking steps of any new Vista installation. It looks like that the cause behind this error is this.

UAC is an attempt made by the Vista engineers to increase the security of the operating system. Although UAC will certainly help the user gain more control over the actions that are done with administrative rights on their PC, it is sometimes referred to as trying to protect the user from him. The extra irritating of having to click on the UAC prompt for many of the actions that we do will most probably cause many users to simply disable it altogether.

This is what I do.

However, please note that if UAC is disabled, files and folders are no longer virtualized to per-user locations for non-UAC compliant applications and all local administrators are automatically logged in with a full administrative access token. Because of that, disabling UAC essentially causes Vista to behave like the Windows XP user model.

Solution #1 – Enable User Account Control (UAC)
Since the lack of UAC on the system has caused the application's installation parameters to fail, we need to temporarily enable UAC for the installation's sake.

1.    In Control Panel click on User Accounts.
2.    Click "Turn User Account Control on or off".
3.    Check the box to "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer" and then click OK.
4.    Restart your computer.
5.    Now try to install Adobe Reader 8, you should succeed.

You can turn off User Account Control after you successfully installed Adobe Reader.

Solution #2 – Use compatibility mode to install the application

If you do not wish to temporarily re-enable UAC (or cannot do so because it will require you to reboot the machine), you can configure the installation program to work in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode.
1.    After downloading the installation file go to the folder where you've saved the file.
2.    Right-click the AdbeRdr80_en_US.exe file and then choose Properties.
3.    Click the Compatibility tab.
4.    Under Compatibility Mode, check Run this program in compatibility mode for: and choose Windows XP (Service Pack 2) from the drop-down list.
5.    Click Apply, then click OK to close the Properties window

Now try to install Adobe Reader 8, you should succeed.