"Font Capture: Windows - Application Error 0xc06d007e" on every PDF open - Acrobat Reader 64-bit 26.002.21931 and 26.002.21996, Windows 11

Question

ENVIRONMENT- Dell 16 Plus (DB16250), Windows 11 (build 26100)- Adobe Acrobat Reader (64-bit), unified installer, free Reader mode (not signed in)- Versions affected: 26.002.21931 and 26.002.21996 (latest, applied 8 Oct 2026) SYMPTOMEach time a PDF is opened, a system dialog appears (usually 1-2 times within 40 seconds):"Font Capture: Windows - Application Error. The exception unknown software exception (0xc06d007e) occurred in the application at location 0x00007FFB064F483A."The address is inside KERNELBASE.dll. Windows logs it as System Event ID 26 (18 times on 4 Oct, 7 on 23 Sep, more since). It happens with several different PDFs. The document still opens and works normally. ALREADY TRIED (none fixed it)1. Help > Repair Installation (succeeded, MsiInstaller 11728)2. Full uninstall (MsiInstaller 11724), user preferences removed (HKCU and AppData Adobe\Acrobat\DC), clean reinstall from the offline installer AcroRdrDCx642600221931_en_US.exe (MsiInstaller 11707)3. Update to 26.002.21996 via AcroRdrDCx64Upd2600221996.msp (MsiInstaller 1022)4. Visual C++ 2015-2022 x64/x86 runtimes verified present (14.51.36247 / 14.50.35719)5. Preferences > Page Display > "Use Local Fonts" unticked6. AppContainer disabled (bEnableProtectedModeAppContainer = 0), then Protected Mode disabled (bProtectedMode = 0) - neither changed anything; both reverted. DIAGNOSTIC FINDINGS- 0xc06d007e is a delay-load failure. A trace taken during a reproduction indicated that Acrobat.dll was delay-loading msi.dll to call MsiEnumRelatedProductsW, and the load failed with Windows error 1346 (ERROR_BAD_IMPERSONATION_LEVEL). msi.dll is present and validly signed by Microsoft. (The raw trace was not preserved, so please treat this as an indication.)- With Protected Mode disabled, Acrobat still starts "compute-only-broker" / "compute-only-renderer" processes; the failing call may come from one of these restricted processes. REQUESTPlease confirm whether this is a known issue in the 26.002 builds, and whether there is a fix or a supported setting to disable the "Font Capture" component. Thank you.

Serene_detail85ab · Answer

Thank you, Meenakshi. A fresh controlled test confirms that the issue persists in Acrobat Reader 64-bit 26.002.21996 on Windows 11. Opening a nine-page PDF produced a Font Capture 0xc06d007e dialog approximately two seconds later. System Event ID 26, record 50636, records the error at 16:38:11.8268392 UTC on 8 October 2026. The dialog remained present after the 40-second observation interval.

The tested PDF is stored in a local OneDrive-synced folder. This controlled test covers that PDF; we have not yet established whether every PDF is affected. A screenshot of the error is available; a video has not yet been recorded.

There is also preserved evidence from two reproduced failures on 26.002.21931. Their delay-load exception records identify msi.dll / MsiEnumRelatedProductsW (ordinal 205), with hmodCur = 0 and Windows error 1346 (ERROR_BAD_IMPERSONATION_LEVEL). The delay-import descriptor was cross-checked against Acrobat.dll on disk, and the ordinal against the installed msi.dll export table. Process Monitor separately recorded BAD IMPERSONATION on the existing, validly signed msi.dll. The exact DLL in the newest 26.002.21996 failure has not yet been independently recovered.

Adobe Diagnostics basic logs were collected locally, but that collection ended before the fresh error. The output includes memory snapshots and embedded browser profile files, so it has not been uploaded and there is no log ID yet. Could you advise a private, appropriately limited way to provide the relevant diagnostics? A small technical evidence bundle, excluding the test PDF, full dumps, raw trace, browser profile and personal contact details, is available.

Could the Acrobat team investigate the Windows Installer query from the compute-only renderer and advise a supported next step or fix? Repair/reinstall and the Use Local Fonts test were already unsuccessful.

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