You probably have an Adobe Reader icon on your desktop or Start menu. Go ahead and start up Adobe Reader.

On the Help menu, look for About Adobe Reader, which may be followed by a version number. If you choose that item and open the dialog, make a note of your version. Click the dialog to dismiss it.

If you have something like 10.1 or 11.0, then use

Help menu > Check for Updates to get the latest in the series.

If you have something older, go to Adobe's download page and get a newer version:

http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Either way, Adobe may suggest installing software from other companies along with Reader. Usually you do not want or need those, so uncheck them unless you're sure you want them.

Does that help?

i tried downloading adobe but the installation was unsuccessful although it might have worked. i checked "tools" and "add ons" and it says i have adobe 11.0.2.0. so did it work? so confused. my husband was with IBM for 43 years and took care of all of these things for me. thanks for your help.

So Firefox was able to download the file and you saved it somewhere.

You can use the download history (Ctrl+j) to start up the installer or open the folder containing it.

When you started up the installer, you got an error? How far did it get in the process? Was there any more detail??

see my edited reply.

tried updating firefox, but said i have to close it first -- then it cancelled the download.

Hi babylady, it sounds as though your Adobe Reader plugin in Firefox is up-to-date. Not sure whether there might have been a failure in some other part of your Adobe install process. If you try to open a PDF in Adobe Reader, does it work?

Regarding updating Firefox, you can use a similar approach to how you updated Adobe Reader:

Help > About Firefox > "Check for Updates" button

Do you need to update?

Finally, I notice your Adobe Flash player is an older version. To update Flash, try going to the Windows Start Menu > Control Panel > Flash Player. Here you can use Adobe's update check and get the latest versions.

i just checked and i'm running firefox 20. thanks. i'll check later to see if i can use acrobat. too tired right now. thanks for your help. i just re-booted the computer too.

i'm still getting pop ads saying adobe is outdated. how do i get rid of them?

I think those may be due to the Flash player, which also is from Adobe. Yours is 11.3, current is 11.7. See whether you can do that update and then test again. I suggest using the following dialog to check for those updates:

Windows Start Menu > Control Panel > Flash Player

i've tried updating it -- can't do. it says my browser is google chrome. i know google chrome is in there somewhere. some on-line PC help installed it last year. i'd like to delete it but i'm afraid i'll screw everything up.

In this case, your default browser may currently be Google Chrome, and not Firefox. Try going to the Tools menu in the menu bar above your tabs in Firefox. Go to options > Advanced button. At the bottom there should be an option to make Firefox your default browser now, or it says Firefox is currently your default browser.

If the Flash Player control panel won't retrieve the updates, you can go to the site directly: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

What Adobe will give you on that page is a small program that downloads quickly. You run that program, and it retrieves the rest of the update.

i think it worked. i walked away from the computer. when i came back it said it was "done". thanks again.

it said "firefox" is my default browser.

adobe reader is not showing on my desktop or when i go to mozilla tools "add ons". wonder what happened to it?

Try to delete the pluginreg.dat file in the Firefox Profile Folder and maybe addons.sqlite as well to reset the plugin registry databases.

See "Re-initializing the plugins database":

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-issues-with-plugins-fix-problems

You can use this button to go to the Firefox profile folder:

• Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder

says windows can't find the program. i'm getting totally confused now.

i did a test to see if i have adobe reader. it said "adobe reader installed correctly",