[gui-talk] Difficulty downloading/installing Adobe Reader 8.1

[Joel Deutsch]

I currently use Adobe Reader V. 7.0, and I heard somewhere (the JFW list, I 
think it was) that the new version 8.1 was available.

I went to the Adobe site, went to the Downloads page, then to the Adobe 
reader page and found the download link for this new version, for Win XP.

When I clicked on it, I got a message asking me to install Active-X. This 
isn't the issue. I have heard that you should be careful about something to 
do with Active-X, because if you install it once, or install it on every Web 
page that asks you to (I forget how this is brought to your attention, but 
anyway), it could render your system vulnerable to some sort of virus deal. 
But this is Adobe, and I figure they're legit, and if they want me to do the 
Active-X thing, that ought to be safe. No?

So I used what I'd learned to do with my newly installed IE7 and access the 
Information Bar, where I was able to indicate that I'd accept Active-X. I 
thought this went successfully.

but as I followed the directions to proceed with the download, nothing more 
happened. It just sort of stalled. No dialogue like you get for most 
downloading. I tried it over a few times, to see if I might have made some 
error, but it just didn't work.

So I had a sighted friend over this evening, someone very computer-capable 
by profession, and asked him to turn off Jaws and try it himself. In some 
frustration, he reported to me that the very same thing happened to him, and 
said I hadn't made any mistake because I was using Jaws. There just seemed 
to be something wrong.

Does anyone happen to know what's up with this issue? It's not an emergency, 
and I can go on using Adobe Reader 7, I guess, but considering that Adobe's 
been good about developing screen reader-friendly features, I always feel 
interested in their upgrades and updates. Knowledgeable advice will be 
appreciated. First of all, have I misunderstood some step in the procedure 
because i failed to explore the page sufficiently with Jaws?If not, what's 
the problem? Anyone know?

Joel