From the ‚Thanks A Million For That Tip‘-Section:
Darrell Norton’s Blog
Make Acrobat Reader 6 load faster
Recently I repaved my laptop to make it a dual-boot Windows Server 2003 / Windows XP machine. I use Windows Server 2003 as my primary operating system, but keep around XP for when I am not connected to a power source (server sucks up the power like there’s no tomorrow). Anyway, I installed the new Acrobat Reader 6, and it loads much too slowly! So, after poking around the Internet, I found that it is all the plug-ins that are enabled by default slowing Acrobat reader down. After removing all but 3, it loads pretty much instantly.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Go to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader (replace the C if you installed on another drive, like I did).
2. Create a new folder called plug_ins_disabled.
3. Move all files from the plug_ins folder to the plug_ins_disabled folder except EWH32.api, printme.api, and search.api. There should only be these 3 files in the plug_ins folder.
4. You’re done.
UPDATE: See what the Acrobat Reader plugins do.