Re: acro_rd_dir

[aorbiter]

Why is the subject folder created in the temp folder by 32-bit gecko-based browsers ONLY?

Waterfox and PaleMoonx64 do not. Whereas Firefox 14.0.1, Firefox 15 betae and PaleMoon 12.3r2 do create subject folder at their startup.

I understand the subject folder is Flash-related. (I thought it was Adobe acrobat reader.) When the Flashx64 plugin installer was current, that's all I had installed. Once that began lagging behind, I used the installer for both 32-bit and 64-bit plugins.

BTW, I've already uninstalled Waterfox and Firefox because of the automatic updates. However I configured them, they were doing freaky stuff update-related while off-line and not running!!

[Moonchild]

It looks like the acrobat reader, not Flash, guessing by the name. I gather you have the acrobat reader plugin in your browser, which is likely not available for (and therefore not installed in) native 64-bit browsers.

As for the freaky stuff you saw, that is most likely the silent update service included in stock Firefox. I'm surprised that Waterfox did not remove that as I'm sure they don't have the server-side components in place to deal with silent background updates.

[lyceus]

It seems that Adobe messed up Flash plug-in more that we though of, since now it relies in acro_rd_dir folder (which formerly is for Adobe Reader plug-in) for store temporal files.

This seems for the restriction of Flash of write files as developers are forced to mark Flash animations as "can read local files only" or "can read web files only" but not both. Maybe for not break backwards compatibility with older versions of flash. Also newer versions of PDF can embed Flash inside PDFs (a trojan horse heaven in this scenario) so maybe the PDF store temp files from the flash file in this folder too for avoid bother to made a new folder for this task.

[aorbiter]

Thanks for the responses.

I don't use Adobe acrobat reader or view pdf online. So no plug-in at all for pdf.

I had read somewhere that Mozilla had plans to integrate the reader into the browser. When the folder appeared in Temp, that was my initial reaction. Search results suggested unconvincingly that the folder was flash-related.

I suppose the original question should be directed towards Adobe and the plug-in programmers as to why a folder is created at startup for the 32-bit and never ever for the 64-bit.

As for the silent-check-for-updates-in-the-background-when-idle-even-when-offline faux pas, the topper was the not-so-silent-but-very-brief displays of windowed messages, presumably after its checks. Thanks, Moonchild, for not travelling down that road.

[lyceus]

I had read somewhere that Mozilla had plans to integrate the reader into the browser. When the folder appeared in Temp, that was my initial reaction. Search results suggested unconvincingly that the folder was flash-related.

The plug-in that you mention is one that is independent from Adobe, but anyway it still open a risk if you use and open a hacked PDF. So wisely this will be not integrated in PaleMoon as Moonchild can confirm to you. There are already good open source options for manage PDF files indeed.