Whenever I open Adobe Reader by opening a .pdf
file on my system (Windows 7 x64) if the Internet connection is not available (no connection at all, or even wrong Internet settings, like a proxy that is not there), Adobe Reader will work for about 1 sec, then freeze for 8 sec or more, after which it will work normally.
When Internet is enabled, it freezes for less than 1 sec instead. No CPU activity, no network activity when Internet is disabled (of course), and memory load is 80 MB during the freeze, out of 100 MB when it finally starts to work.
To me, it is a distinct signature of a network process that conditions the execution of the entire application. Adobe is looking for something on the Internet, and won't allow any action from the user, even a scroll, until it's finished, or sure that the resource is unavailable, by...waiting for the timeout. And I'm waiting for that timeout too. Every time I open Adobe Reader after it was completely closed.
I've seen something about recently used files that are on an unavailable network location. I've tried reducing the recently used file list to 1 in the preferences/document menu, but this does not affect the complete list of recently used files, only what is displayed in the "file" menu.
None of the other answers (disable protected mode at startup, disable automatic authentication of signatures at startup, disable everything that required an automatic network action from adobe that I could identify) worked for me. The only thing I can do to work without this annoying interruption is to let the Internet on all the time, which is sometimes impossible.
If anyone has the REAL explanation to that problem, I would be very grateful. What is Adobe Reader looking for on the net that is so badly necessary that it has to stop functioning at all at startup until it finds what it's looking for?
Thank you for your help!