Acrobat 7.0 - requires presence of acrobat 5.0?

I have recently installed Acrobat Reader 7.0 because some new files cannot be read with my old reader 5.0 any more. It took me 126 mb of precious disk space, but I dont seem to be able to delete the old reader, 5.0, without taking some risk. However, it saves me 69 mb of my overcrowded harddisk. I need every mb space I can get! Anyone, is it safe to delete the old reader?

I deinstalled the older one first, then the new 7.0. All went well.
Should work.

So I should now first uninstall 7.0, then uninstall 5.0 and then again install 7.0? Or can I just go ahead and uninstall 5.0 from XP control panel - Add or Remove Programs - and everything will work fine?

I would deinstall first the old one, then the new one.
Now it would be good to clean the registry with a tool like this:

PowerTools

In this program, use the RegCleaner-TAB and run it. Delete the entries which are safe to be deleted (mostly marked in green). Now registry is clean.
Then install only the new one (7.0).

This seems to cost 29.95 $? Is there no free version? Verzeihung, meinem Deutsch is gar nicht so gut.... The size of this program is just 2 mb? I hope so because otherwise I lose again more space....

Nö, you can download it for free, but it is not THAT necessary.
It would be the cleanest way, but I guess it will also work without.

Just deinstall both these blöde readers and install only the 7.0, Herr Major!

I replaced Adobe Acrobat 5.0 with Adobe Reader 7.0, but it seems that by deleting Acrobat 5.0 I also removed Acrobat Distiller, which I badly need to make pdf files from word-files. Is that facility to be found within the Adobe Reader or should I download a new Acrobat version to get the Distiller back?

Acrobat and Acrobat Reader are two different products. Reader just reads. The full Acrobat suite includes the distiller and also lets you create PDF files.

Yes so I figured but it seems from the Adobe site that the Acrobat is not for free. So the Acrobat 5.0 version I have here on CD will still support the Reader 7.0? (Seems like I am back to square 1 then........... )

You can keep both installed at the same time and use 5.0 for producing PDFs and 7.0 Reader for reading. They don't conflict with each other.

hmmm. That worked. However, now Reader 7.0 seems not to be working anymore. so that has to be again uninstalled and re-installed in order to work?

Hmm... How does it not work?

Now, whenever I open a pdf file it opens with Acrobat 5.0, not with Reader 7.0 anymore. It seems like a waste of 126 mb of precious disk space that Reader 7.0 takes (still struggling to come by with 10 GB HDD). Actually I installed Reader 7.0 only because the bengali panjika you recommended to me could not be read with 5.0 anymore. Is it so that gradually more and more pdf files wont open with 5.0 anymore and one is more or less compelled to install higher versions of the Adobe Reader because of that? If so, then I will keep Reader 7.0. If not, I could uninstall it and save myself 126 mb space...

Hmm... My Acrobat Reader 7.0 only takes 93.6 MB. Of that, there's a folder called Setup Files that takes 36 MB worth that can be deleted. The remaining folders are ActiveX, Esl, Help, Reader, Resource.

To change PDFs to open automatically with Reader 7.0, right click, select Open With... then select Reader 7.0 and tick "always open with this program".

Right click what? And where?
I selected Reader 7.0 while right clicking on the icon of a pdf file on my HDD, but I could not find a place to tick 'always open with this program'. It just opens without giving me first this opportunity.

Probably installed with 'Asian Language Support' FYI, this is for pictographic languages, Chinese, Japanese. Not needed for sanskrit/bengali support.

Just to be sure, here is a screenshot of the folder you seem to refer to. If its OK I will delete it. And.............are there any other programs I am using where such space-saving operations can be performed?

Yes, that one exactly.

I have no idea what all programs you have, so it's hard to comment on that.

These are the ones - Real stands for Real Player and Macromedia for Dreamweaver

There doesn't seem to be too much in there to get rid of. You could uninstall "Games" if you can live without Minesweeper. I see you have Microsoft Word and Word for Windows 2.0 both installed. The latter is probably a bit redundant, unless you need it for some specific use.

One thing you might want to consider: Think about all the time you spend worrying about cleaning up your hard drive, and pay yourself a cleaner's wage, 8 euros for an hour. Five to six hours worth cleaning is the price you'd have paid for a new 40 GB hard drive, seven to eight for a 80 GB model.

Well yeah if you are willing to shoot a whole video for me (of course you could keep it to help others in the future too.... ) But wait for a while, because Google gives me outrageous prices for HDDs in Holland too - 180 euros for 20 GB - cant believe it! (Nor can I afford it )