Earlier this week Adobe released new versions of its Acrobat/Reader product line, to fix a series of security vulnerabilities in earlier versions.

There are at least eight variants of Adobe Acrobat and its free counterpart, Reader, which can be confusing. Mitigating this potential confusion is the fact that the huge majority of people who have one of these products installed are using the free Acrobat Reader DC.

The release notes associated with this set of updates reveals that the new versions address at least twenty-six security vulnerabilities in earlier versions. Many of the vulnerabilities are flagged as Critical. The updated version of Acrobat Reader DC is 2020.012.20041.

With default settings, recent versions of Reader will update themselves, on a schedule determined by Adobe, within a few days of a new version’s release. Although it’s possible to override this default behaviour, doing so requires installation of an additional tool or editing the Windows registry directly.

If you’d like to check the version of Reader you’re using, navigate Reader’s menu to Help > About Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. To check for updates and install the latest version, go to Help > Check For Updates...