Participating Frequently

Question

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

Forum|Forum|26 days ago
January 28, 2026
14 replies
3723 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.

Lucas5FBE

Participant

As a workaround you can set the following registry value, you’ll then see more than one iexplore process. Based on our observation the ActiveX works fine when loaded out of the main iexplore process:

Key Path:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

Value Name: TabProcGrowth

Data: 1

Value Type: DWORD or REG_SZ

positive_Marvel7593

Participant

S

stesz

Inspiring

This is super helpful, thank you!

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Participating Frequently

I suspect its MS breaking COM/ActiveX add-ins, I assume that’s how Adobe still integrates with the legacy web component in Windows.

mbettencourt

Participant

The KB5077181 update brought back the problem that was fixed in KB5074105.

AnandSri

Community Manager

Hello @mbettencourt @Noah_Tec

Thank you for reporting this, and I am sorry for the trouble. We will get this investigated with the product team and will update the thread if any workarounds are available.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

L3m0nZ

Participant

@AnandSri , there is a workaround available by disabling the Adobe add-on in the internet options.

This way the prompt “open, save as, save” pops up instead of receiving the preview.

But of course: the issue should be resolved globally.

Noah_Tec

Participant

The issue has resurfaced with the latest patch, KB5077181. It was previously fixed in KB5074105, but the new update seems to have reintroduced the issue.

mbettencourt

Participant

Yes, the KB5077181 update brought back the problem that was fixed in KB5074105.

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hopefully Adobe are still looking into the issue but no response from anyone at Adobe since in almost 2 weeks.

S

stesz

Inspiring

Unfortunately, we were unable to uninstall KB5074109 due to it being deemed a critical update for Windows. While we were able to block the patch for a few users, the problem reached them yesterday after more updates were installed. I am unable to determine which newer update broke this, but am also unable to install KB5074105 as they are on a newer build. (Windows 11 25H2, build 26200.7840).

If anyone knows of a different patch for this build that would fix this, please let me know. I’ve also fully updated Acrobat and reviewed Adobe’s release notes and Known Issues KB, which doesn’t mention this issue.

Based on the other posts here, it sounds like something that needs to be resolved on Adobe’s end to fix the addon. I hope to hear an update soon! We are using the workaround for now.

emil77dean

Participant

Next cumulative patch from Microsoft for Windows 11 (2026-02 - KB5077181) also blocks Adobe ActiveX plugin which works only in IE mode.

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Participating Frequently

Yes we are a bit stuck with having to disable the add-in or suggest another PDF reader until either Adobe or MS can resolve.

AnandSri

Community Manager

Hi All,

This has already been reported to our team, and they are working to get a solution/workaround for the issue. As this is also dependent on MS, we have not received any confirmation yet.

I will update the thread if we receive any updates/solutions related to this.

Thanks to all for your patience and cooperation.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

askalka

Participating Frequently

Hi @AnandSri

this is the feedback i got from Microsoft today:

o far, however, I haven’t been able to find any confirmed or conclusive evidence.

If we don’t know which specific Windows API call used by Adobe’s code is failing—and how this failure prevents the control from rendering the PDF correctly within the client area—we cannot make a reliable statement about which changes introduced with KB5074109 ultimately caused Adobe’s code to fail and the control to stop rendering.

To recap: once the issue occurs, one or more Adobe.exe process instances remain running.
This could indicate a problem in Adobe’s ActiveX control, specifically its inability to perform the required inter‑process communication with one or more Adobe.exe instances.

As a result, the COM interfaces exposed by the control become unstable, which appears to be an additional side effect (or a separate issue) that should be reviewed by Adobe.

In short, based on the available technical details and observed behavior, Microsoft is not in a position to draw a reliable technical conclusion regarding either the root cause of the issue or which change may have resolved it without having investigate a details root cause analysis.

Niceouttoday

Participant

I noticed the post disappear as well. Very interesting, Microsoft released a 4’th January update lol… Jan 13, Jan 17, Jan 24 and now Jan 29. At least they are working on things. We’re going to try 5075105, thanks for posting.

Anywen

Participant

After installing latest Windows Update (January 29, 2026—KB5074105 (OS Builds 26200.7705 and 26100.7705) Preview - Microsoft Support)
The issue seems to be fixed on one of my test computer.
I’ll try on more to confirm but this seems promising

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Participating Frequently

That's weird, its just got the fix for the missing icon on the logon screen hasn’t it?

Anywen

Participant

Hello, weird for sure, changelog don’t seems to talk about this.
I’ve got 2 more computers (3 for now) with the patch applied, and reader is working in IE mode

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

Participating Frequently

Hi,

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

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Participating Frequently

Show more replies

@chrissmithdatelgroup My testing shows KB5075899 does not fix the issue for Windows Server 2025, can anyone else confirm this?

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded