[OPLINTECH] Web sites want to install Adobe Reader when we already have it, requires admin

[Phil Shirley]

Does anyone have any idea why this kind of thing happens, and what I can 
do to prevent it?  I was helping a patron on one of our public computers 
who was trying to apply for a job.  He followed a link in his email and 
spherion.com came up; it said that Adobe reader wasn't installed and 
prompted him to install it. I logged on as an administrator; the same 
thing happened; it wouldn't install at first, but I uninstalled the 
existing Adobe Reader (9.1) and then went back to the website this 
patron was using (spherion.com) and it installed Adobe reader (it was 9.1).

Then I logged off and logged on as a power user; the web site again said 
Adobe Reader wasn't installed and prompted us to install it. I logged 
back in as an administrator and everything was fine - it didn't prompt 
to install Adobe Reader - it just continued past that point and worked.

I would have tried to work around this by right clicking and saving the 
pdf to the desktop and then trying to open it from withing Adobe Reader, 
but there was no link to a specific PDF.

I've seen this before on at least one other site, where a patron was 
trying to print her pay stub.

Any idea what's going on here, or what specific kind of permission this 
program might want (other than simply being an administrator)?  We were 
using IE 7 on Win XP pro, (didn't try Firefox this time but I think I 
did when this happened to a patron before). Thanks.

Phil
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Phil Shirley
Technology Services Coordinator
Cuyahoga Falls Library
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
330-928-2117, ext. 109
pshirley at CuyahogaFallsLibrary dot org

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