bug with IE5 upgrades and PDF files

[Wes Edens]

I apologize if this has been brought up before...I scanned through the archives for the past several months and didn't see it.

We're having trouble with some databases that use PDF files.  Not all databases--for example, no problem with Political Risk Yearbook Online.  No problem with Investext Research Bank Web, but when we switched to the Searchbank platform for Investext,  trouble.  This also happens with ProQuest Direct.   Adobe never launches, and sometimes we get a message that refers us to look at the Microsoft Active X gallery.
>From a copied email (sorry, I don't have the list or website this comes from) a user in the UK found a local fix, which I'll lay out below.  **However, my question is this:  does anyone know what's happening at the vendor side and is there anything we should tell them to do?**

Here's the fix that works for us, from Julian Thornhill:

"..[in a] 'typical' IE5 upgrade, all of the IE5 stuff seems to end up in the winnt directory...You don't get a subdirectory 'plugins'.   However, as we shall see, this is of use...I uninstalled IE5 and did a fresh install, stating a specific installation directory.  This gave me a plugin sub-dir, which was empty.  Now comes the magic: 
Copy nppdf32.dll from your Acrobat installation directory and put it in this new empty plugin dir.  After this Acrobat will launch when you click on the previous broken link.
Don't ask me to explain why any of this works."

I won't ask, but I'd really like to tell ProQuest and Gale Group what to do on their end, since we have hundreds of students and faculty members who won't be able to complete this fix on their laptop, and we can't go to all of them around the world.

Thanks very much.


Wes Edens
Electronic Resources Librarian
Int'l Business Information Centre
Am. Grad. School of Int'l Mgt. (Thunderbird)
Glendale, AZ
(602) 978 7897
Fax:  (602) 978 7407
edensw at t-bird.edu