I recently became infected with a Windows virus. I was using Foxit reader and downloaded a PDF file that used a javascript exploit to place a DLL in my PATH. This virus-infected DLL was found before the real DLL because browsers search for it in three locations, in order.
The version of Foxit reader I was using did not have the ability to turn off javascript. It may now.
Of course, pretty much every viewer on *nix is faster than Adobe Reader, which makes it all the more irritating and confusing every time I forget that it is set as the default in our CS labs...
Agreed! Foxit integrates well with Firefox and even opens some huge PDF's that Acrobat Reader chokes on and brings my laptop (C2D 2.1Ghz, 3GB RAM) to a crawl.
The Foxit Reader is an excellent choice on the Windows platform - fast and free.
Download link here: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/