Lightweight PDF Readers
Are you also tired of waiting for Adobe's PDF reader to load? At a whopping 22 MB download it spreads itself onto Windows like there is no tomorrow.
Two very nice alternatives exist, which might not have all the features of the "original", but which certainly fulfill my needs.
The first is a very small program named Sumatra PDF. The download is just over a meg and it does what it should: render PDF files. The only feature missing to me is a find command to search for text within a PDF. I've hit it with dozens of different documents I have and there was only one that it couldn't open. Why not try it as a portable app?
The next program, also free of charge, is Foxit Reader for Windows, with many more features, including finding text and creating annotations. There are a number of plug ins available for it, including form operations, but those have to be purchased.
Both of these launch at an incredible speed in comparison with the "original" and are certainly very viable alternatives.