1. Adobe Reader - Free

Adobe Reader is without a doubt the standard application needed for PDF viewing on Windows. This software lets you view and print Adobe PDF files on a variety of hardware and operating system platforms. Having been popular used over a decade, Adobe Reader has gone through various evolutions during this time. Now, people can see plug-ins and extensions within the program. They are useful but at the same time, make the program runs bloated and slow.

Main Features:

• View, sign, and comment on any PDF file more securely
• Sign any PDF using a typewritten, hand-drawn, or scanned image of your signature
• Interact with forms and rich media including PDF Portfolios, CAD files, and multimedia content
• Easily access PDF documents - open and view any PDF file
• Manage software rollouts and standards

2. Foxit Reader - Free

Foxit Reader is a lightweight and lightning quick utility for reading PDF files. Comparing to Adobe Reader, Foxit Reader has a much smaller footprint that starts up instantly, renders PDF files quickly and uses very little memory.It is packed full of convenient and easy to use viewing, commenting and printing features that make document collaboration simple. And Foxit Reader's secure platform insures worry free operation and provides a secure and reliable digital signature verification platform.

Main Features:

• Easy-to-use review and commenting tools
• Social Network Integration
• Listen to your PDF documents while you're on the go
• Free spell checker for comments
• Add/Edit/Modify Bookmarks
• Support add Images, Movies, Links and file attachments to any PDF document
• Text Viewer & Text Converter

3. Nitro PDF Reader - Free

Nitro PDF Reader is a handy PDF reader as well as PDF editor that covers all the basic tasks most people perform on a daily basis with PDF documents. Create PDF files, comment and review, save PDF forms, extract text and images, type text directly onto the page, and more, these are the things Nitro can do. In one word, Nitro PDF Reader is a full featured PDF reader with annotation tools, image and text extractors and a special tool to convert documents to PDF.

Main Features:

• Annotate PDF documents, insert notes, highlight, cross-out or underline certain text
• Can extract images and text from PDF files
• Support convert documents to PDF
• Be able to create a signature, protect signing, view & manage signatures
• Navigation panes including Pages, Bookmarks, Comments, Output, Signatures, and Attachments

 

4. Nuance PDF Reader - Free

With Nuance PDF Reader, you can easily open and read PDF files on your computer. This simple PC PDF reader loads in seconds and has a nicely designed interface.

Main Features:

• Open, view and navigate virtually any PDF and XPS document
• Convert to editable text
• Print with comments
• Looks Like Search™ - search the entire PDF file and get a dynamic list of all matching instances
• Underline and highlight text
• Support playback of embedded movie files

 

If only you get PDF reader, you can view the PDF files as many other document formats file. Installing either of the above mentioned PDF Reader programs can help to read PDF documents on your computer with Windows 7, XP or Vista for free. More, what you get is not just a simple PDF program that reads PDF, but a smart PDF tool to make some edition to the files.