How to update Adobe Acrobat 9

I still use Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 because upgrades are too expensive. On trying to reinstall it on Windows 10, I discovered that none of the updates appear to be found. Here is how to get updates.

  1. Install Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 from the CD-Rom
  2. Right click on the computer date/time in the task bar, select “Adjust date/time” and (a) Change “Set time automatically” to Off (b) Then “Change date and time” to 31 May 2013.
  3. In Acrobat, go to the Help menu and select Check for Updates. They should now appear.
  4. Follow the instructions. If you are asked to restart your computer, check whether the computer date has reset, and change it again to 31 May 2013, before checking for updates.
    1. Updating to v9.2.0 was easy, and required one restart. Although on one machine, I was able to update all the way to v9.5.5. After v9.2.0, I found that I could leave the PC date set to the current date and time.
    2. On another machine, checking for updates resulted in “Update failed”. To resolve this issue required manual updates from v9.2.0 via Adobe’s FTP server for Windows for Acrobat v9. Unfortunately each patch increment requires installing separately. But once I had reached v9.4.0, an Adobe background updater kicked in (about 10 minutes after restarting to get to v9.4.0), and I was then automatically updated from v.9.4.0 to v9.5.5.
  5. Repeat until Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 is been updated to v9.5.5.
  6. Restore your computer date, and re-enable automatic date/time updates