Adobe Reader DC Previewer Not Working in Win10 or Outlook

Question

I have two problems with Adobe Reader DC that, I'm sure, are inter-related:

Within Microsoft Outlook 2016 (O365 desktop version): If I try to preview a PDF attachment, I get the error "This file cannot be previewed because of an error with the following previewer: PDF Preview Handler." Double-clicking the attachment will open the file within Acrobat Reader DC as expected. The PDF file icon represents that Adobe is the default. Other previewers (Word, Excel and PowerPoint, for example) all show file attachment previews as expected. Furthermore, if I load a third party PDF viewing utility and set it as my default, PDF attachments will view as expected. My conclusion, therefore, is that the problem is related to Adobe Reader DC.
Similarly within Windows 10 File Explorer: If I select a PDF file, the previewer displays an error: "This file can't be previewed." The PDF file icon represents that Adobe is the default. Double-clicking will open the file within Adobe DC as expected. Again, other file previewers all work as expected.

System configuration:

MS Surface Pro 4 i5/8gb with >150gb of available disk space
Windows 10 with all current updates
Office 2016 Desktop from Office 365 with all current updates

I have reviewed other recommendations on this forum and elsewhere and believe that I've exhausted all the recommendations. Among the things that have been done:

Verification that Adobe Reader DC has all its defaults
Uninstalled the third party PDF viewer that I had been using
Repair of Adobe Reader DC. When that didn't work, I then tried an uninstall and reinstall of Adobe Reader DC.
Repair of Office 2016 (both the simple and longer repairs. When that didn't work, I tried a full uninstall and reinstall of Office 2016.
Repaired my Outlook OST file.
Ran a disk check and system file check (SFC) on my system. Ran CCLEANER. Ran two different malware/virus scans.
Verified the registry entries that were mentioned in other troubleshooting suggestions and verified that one entry was not there per another suggestion.

I would prefer to be using Adobe Reader as my PDF viewer default.

What more can I do to resolve this issue?

Thanks much for any assistance,

-bs

moirty · Accepted Answer

Only a fresh build of Windows solved this problem.

Sorrel5E92 · Answer

Both of these solutions are wildly incorrect, here is the correct solution:

Check the bit version of Office and Adobe PDF in control panel > uninstall a program

If one is 32 and one is 64, then you need to make sure they are on the same bit version.

Either go to portal.office.com, download software, and change the bit version you're downloading (either 64 or 32 depending on what version of Adobe you have), or go to the adobe PDF viewer download page, change the version at the bottom of the page, and install the bit version on the left hand side (32 bit is listed as just the "adobe reader" download without a listed bit version).

You DO NOT need to reinstall Windows to make this work, and that suggestion is dangerous.

-Sorrel

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