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Adobe Acrobat Reader shows a Grey Screen after installing KB5074109 when utilising the WebBrowser component in Windows

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
January 28, 2026
16 replies
6106 views

Since installing KB5074109 the WebBrowser component can no longer load PDF’s within applications utilising Windows WebBrowser component.

Instead of displaying Adobe and the PDF in the browser a grey screen appears and the Adobe Acrobat Reader process is launched but appears to not do anything.

Users are using the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (2025.001.21111, although had a previous version when logged).

As a work around we currently disable the add-in in Internet Options which provides users with a popup to Open or Save the PDF instead.

I was monitoring threads

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/issues-with-adobe-dc-reader-after-windows-11-update-kb5074109/td-p/15665887 and https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/pdf-documents-not-loading-after-june-8th-on-64-bit-web-browser-control-web-app/td-p/12121363 (Although 4 years old had responses this week which included one saying it was being investigated by developers) but it appears since yesterday the community site has changed and responses and threads have disappeared.

Is this still being investigated as we don’t have the issue with other PDF Readers.

Correct answer chrissmithdatelgroup

Initial tests show KB5079473 Adobe Acrobat Add-in is working for Windows 11 25H2, testing for Windows Server still ongoing

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sbomobc

Participant

I'm experiencing the same issue.

After installing Windows Update KB5074109 (January 2026), I can no longer display PDFs using Adobe Acrobat Reader in the WebBrowser control within a 64-bit .NET application.
The same issue does not occur with 32-bit .NET applications.

After uninstalling KB5074109, I was able to display PDFs again, so there's no doubt that KB5074109 was the cause.

I hope that Adobe and Microsoft will work together to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

platzac

Participant

same on Windows Server 2025 since KB5073379: users cannot view/print PDF under Internet Explorer 11 tabs, no problem under full Edge tabs.

before KB5073379 iexplore.exe was dated to the 27.03.2025, after iexplorer.exe date changed to 14.01.2026

uninstalling KB5073379 (resolve) the issue

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Inspiring

Hi,

We have tested and confirmed this for Server 2025 as well.

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Inspiring

P

Phips-

Participating Frequently

Same issue here!

AnandSri

Legend

Hello @Noah_Tec and @Anywen

I hope you are doing well, and we’re sorry for the trouble you had.

The product team is still investigating the issue. We’ll share an update as soon as we get a workaround available.

Also, we recently migrated our community to a new platform; hence, you see the changes. Please note that all posts, replies, solutions, feature requests, and bug reports created on or before November 16 are already available. Content created between November 17 and launch day, January 27, will be added soon, no data will be lost, and you won’t need to recreate anything.

Thanks for your cooperation and patience.

Regards,

Anand Sri | Acrobat Community Team

P

Phips-

Participating Frequently

Hello @AnandSri

thanks for your update on this topic! 👍🏾

Can we track the issue somewhere?

BR

Noah_Tec

Participant

We are currently facing the same issue…..

Anywen

Participant

Hello, I can confirm we also have this issue on win11 24h2 computers with KB5074109 installed.
OOB update KB5077744 and KB5078127 don’t seems to fix the issue.
We’re currently using the same workaround of disabling add-in in internet options.