FoxitReader on a Win2K3 Terminal Server

[trinityservices]

Greetings,

Does anyone have any experience using FoxitReader on a Win2K3 Terminal Server? We are considering Foxit Reader as the replacement to Adobe. We typically have around 150 users executing various applications on the Terminal server farm at any given time. Any 'pro' or 'con' Foxit reader on a Terminal Server experiences shared would be greatly appreciated.

We have reluctantly been using the memory hog Adobe Reader 8 for some time. It worked, but we took a serious performance hit on the servers.

We've now run into some serious locking issues with the new Adobe Reader 9. (multiple users simultaneously running Adobe Reader 9 in different sessions causes random application crashes) We suspect that it is related to the colaboration coding in version 9.

Regardless, we've had it with Adobe and are seriously looking for alternatives.

Thanks in advance for the sage replies.

Regards,
trinityservicesgroup

[christina]

Hello All,

Please kindly share your experiences on a WTS here, any input will be appreciated.

Hello trinityservices

Thanks for your interesting in Foxit. So have you any anxiousness for using Foxit Reader?

[trinityservices]

Thank you for the reply Christina.
To answer your question, yes we are actively looking for a replacement of Adobe Reader v9 on our Win2k3 terminal server farm.

Here's our concerns regarding the use of Foxit.
1. Simultanoeus usage of the software by multiple users on the same server. specifically, application locking or dll conflicts.
2. Licensing issues for same.
3. Memory & cpu usage for same.
4. Printing issues as terminal server print jobs are handled differently than standard server print jobs. (printer re-direction to client printer handled by terminal server specific dlls)

Thanks,
trinityservices.

[CCSNET]

I am just in process of commissioning a 2 server TS farm using foxit

so far it is working fine, the only complaint i have from the customer is the Advert keeps appearing.

suppose i just need to track down the regkey to turn it off

apart from that everything seems fine

[christina]

Hello trinityservices,

Thanks for your input. To better take your concerns away, I will confirm with the developer team before I say something.

Hello CCSNET,

Do you mean 'Advertisement Bar'?
How about '' Uncheck it under View menu"? It will disable the advertisement for ever. Doesn't this work in your customer part?

Christina

[CCSNET]

I've tried setting it in install mode then getting a user to logon but the advert stays.

its a per user setting but cant figure our where its kept.

also the un-ticking the item doesn't make any difference to any user the next time its started it just comes back up.

[dsergeant]

There are around six separate adverts, keep turning it off each time you open Foxit and once you have done it six times you won't see them again. The settings are in the registry, you can also turn them all off there if you are familiar with regedit.

[christina]

Thank you for the reply Christina.
To answer your question, yes we are actively looking for a replacement of Adobe Reader v9 on our Win2k3 terminal server farm.

Here's our concerns regarding the use of Foxit.
1. Simultanoeus usage of the software by multiple users on the same server. specifically, application locking or dll conflicts.
2. Licensing issues for same.
3. Memory & cpu usage for same.
4. Printing issues as terminal server print jobs are handled differently than standard server print jobs. (printer re-direction to client printer handled by terminal server specific dlls)

Thanks,
trinityservices.

Sorry for late reply. Response to your Item#1, 3,4, our testing team has tested for numerous times and find no problem. You can feel freely to use Foxit Reader. About the licensing issues, please write to our sales team, they will get back to you shortly. Thanks.

Any questions, please let me know.

[Mecallie]

Sorry to bump up this thread, but we have installed Foxit 3.0 on 4 of our 8 Windows 2003 terminal services servers. Results so far:

Memory usage: -50 to -70% when compared to Acrobat Reader 8 (9 caused crashes, did not install that on our servers).
Printing: no problems at all.
User experience: one minor issue, no per user settings...
Also: scrolling is much smoother in PDF's. Our clients sometimes experienced clunky scrolling, not with Foxt!

So so far: way to go Foxit!

Only one question, and that is why I am bumping up this thread:
Can anyone tell me how I can get Foxit to use per user settings instead of the global settings from the terminal servers installation?

[christina]

How do your user run Foxit Reader? Run locally or run it from server?

If the settings you want to change are stored in the HKCU, you configure there for each user.

[Mecallie]

I have installed Foxit locally on the terminal server. People run it directly from the terminal server using a link or by clicking on a PDF document.

And I do not specifically want to set settings for the users. I would like for them to be able to change some settings so they can set things up the way they like.

[christina]

Foxit Reader 3.1.0824 stores preference settings on HKEY_CURRENT_USER, if your people have a desktop on the terminal server, they will be able to change the settings.

[xport]

Foxit Reader 3.1.0824 stores preference settings on HKEY_CURRENT_USER, if your people have a desktop on the terminal server, they will be able to change the settings.

%APPDATA% is the best location for save configurations for multi-users.

if you store data in the Register, everything tightly binds with server, how can we switch to another one. A good solution is mapping %HOMEPATH% to a NAS sharefolder, wherever you go, you can keep the same working space.

So %APPDATA% is better than Register.

[christina]

Thanks. I will forward you comment to our developer team for reference.