Possible to make Adobe Reader not hold a file lock on Windows?

Question

On Windows, when a PDF is opened in Adobe Reader, it appears to hold a lock on the file. This behavior means that if I want to re-run pdflatex to regenerate the file, I need to close it in Reader, run pdflatex, jump back to Reader, and reopen the file. Is there a way to make Reader not hold a lock while the file is open, like Preview on OSX and most other PDF readers I've used on other platforms?

Scansorial

SumatraPDF is a reader for windows which does not lock the file. – Corner

Thanks! That's exactly what I ended up using. – Scansorial

Please consider answering your own question if @peq was right – Solothurn

Answer 1

As peq mentioned, SumatraPDF (http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/free-pdf-reader.html ) is a great solution.

Scansorial

Which actually isn't an answer to the question asked. The question was if it was able to cause the behavior with Adobe Reader, not if there is an alternative. – Commingle

Be aware that Sumatra asks for admin right and installs straight into Program Files. Utterly uncool!! – Palaeolithic

Be aware that Sumatra now also comes in a portable version which does not require admin rights to install and can run from everywhere. The installer also now includes an option to customise the installation path. The actual answer to the question is (as far as I know) a plain strict no. There is no way to make Adobe not hold a lock on PDF files. – Tarp

-1. This doesn't answer the question. SumatraPDF isn't perfect and has its deficiencies, and thus you could find in the main menu of SumatraPDF an option to open the file with Adobe Reader. – Submarginal

Answer 2

As seen in this post in Adobe forum, the company considers this not to be a desirable feature but a bug.

Victorie