Annoyance -- Software update pings

[travelingtypist]

Dell Inspiron e1505 laptop, XP Media Center.

I'm kind of a late adopter on software. I have Windows Media Player 10 (current version is 11 I think) and Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 (current version is 9 I think) on my computer now and both of those programs are driving me nuts with the update pings. I don't want to upgrade because I've had crashes on both of those newer versions on this computer.

Any way to shut the update pings off?

Thanks in advance.

[canetoad]

1. There are plenty of free programs

with which you could replace Windows Media Player. Media player classic is a great program http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm
you could search oldversions.com if you don't want the latest one. A great little mp3 player is '1 by 1' http://mpesch3.de1.cc/1by1.html

For videos VLC player is hard to beat http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ although Media Player Classic does a great job too. You may need codecs - Google for K-lite codec packs (they come bundled with MPC)

Now, Acrobat Reader - this may not be right, as I use Acrobat 8. Look in the help menu for Updating. When you open it, there may be a preference button to stop auto-searching for updates. If there is nothing there, trawl through the options/preferences. I'm pretty sure there is a way of turning off updates, but just can't remember exactly where.

[travelingtypist]

2. Adobe annoyance gone.

Tools, preferences. D'oh. My Homer Simpson moment today.

Thank you.

On WMP, does the classic work on the embedded stuff? For work I have to listen to a lot of audio that it'll only play if WMP or RealPlayer are installed. RP is another one that likes to nag me incessantly.

This versioning thing drives me batty.

[canetoad]

4. If you download

the K-Lite mega codec pack, as well as MPClassic, it has Real Player and Quicktime alternatives which take the place of the annoying programs. With this bundle and VLC player, you can watch just about anything on or off line. Make sure you get rid of Real Player completely though.

[pokerfan]

3. Acrobat Reader?

Use FoxIt PDF Reader instead. Smaller and faster than Adobe. Recently added support for inline viewing in Firefox.

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader