Download Squad has a post on the The 5 most annoying programs on your PC and I cannot disagree with their selections:
There’s no help for some of them, but they suggest Foxit Reader as a substitute for Adobe Acrobat Reader:
Acrobat reader does one thing poorly — read PDFs. To do this it needs to download updates at least twice a month. Acrobat’s other big feature is the ability to bring your system to a roaring halt while it boots up its massive amount of plugins and libraries. All this to display (wait for it) — a page.
FoxIt Reader is a much better solution. Download it, and you’ll no longer cringe each time your accidentally click on a PDF link while browsing the internet.
I gave it a try and it is fantastic as well as free unless you want some advanced features. Highly recommended.