I installed Acrobat Reader 8.0, and every single time I open a document, I was presented with a “please wait while the document is being prepared” message, that would sometimes stay for minutes as it indexed the entire document. This presented issues with both usability, and when giving presentations.

To remove this ‘feature’, simply navigate to your %Program Files%\Adobe\Reader 8.0\reader\plug_ins folder, and rename (delete, copy elsewhere) the ‘accessability.api’ file. The same file exists, but in slightly different locations, in older version of Acrobat Reader.

Poof! No more annoying messages preventing you from actually reading the file. Keep in mind, the ‘reader’ functionality will no longer work, but who uses that anyways? Next time you open a file, Acrobat will complain that this version doesn’t have ‘reader’ functionality built in. Check the box, and click OK, and that’s the last you will hear from them on that.