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Answered

Software printers are enumerated incorrectly in the Adobe Acrobat Reader print UI when Acrobat is installed.

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
June 9, 2026
34 replies
1694 views

Hello,

My organization has a use case where we need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat Standard installed simultaneously for certain users.

It looks like as of Reader/Acrobat 26.001.21651, the Print dialog in Reader does not display the list of software printers correctly. For example, the Microsoft Print to PDF option prints to a different printer when selected, and shows that other printer’s properties when Properties is clicked. This is the case for all software printers in the list. Physical printers on our print server appear to be unaffected.

I did a capture with ProcMon, and it looks like what is happening is Reader is enumerating all of the printers the user has available, but does not list the Adobe PDF Converter that is installed along with Acrobat (it shows up as “Adobe PDF” in the Windows registry and the Procmon log). However, I think although when it filters the name of this printer, it isn’t removing its properties, so those properties ‘roll over’ to the next listed printer, which results in the behavior I am seeing.

I tested this theory by renaming the Adobe PDF entries under HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Printers\ and HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Devices to something else. As soon as I did that, the new name showed up in the print UI, and the other software printer options were mapped correctly to their Properties and print applications.

I also tried this in Reader/Acrobat 26.001.21662 that just came out, and it has the same bug.

Just to be clear, to duplicate, install the 32-bit versions of Reader and Acrobat>Open Reader>Open any PDF>Menu>Print>Select a software printer>Click Properties>Check the name of the Properties window vs the printer you selected.

I realize that needing both of these apps installed is a niche use case, but I wanted to report this so it can be resolved. Let me know if any more details are required and I can provide via DM. Thanks!

Correct answer AndrewSAIF

Hello, it appears that I am no longer able to duplicate this issue on my test computer running Acrobat/Reader 26.001.21745 that was released this morning.

Hopefully others are able to duplicate this result. Thanks!

Show previous replies

jane-e

Community Expert

@AndrewSAIF wrote For example, the Microsoft Print to PDF option…

Microsoft’s Print to PDF does not involve Adobe at all. If you look in Properties, you’ll see the PDF was created Microsoft.

Adobe gave away PDF to an ISO about 20 years ago, so other companies, including Microsoft, can also generate PDFs. Properties will always tell you the producer.

If you have Acrobat installed, then use the Acrobat tab of the Ribbon to create an Adobe PDF.

Jane

A

AndrewSAIFAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Jane-e, it doesn’t matter which virtual printer you pick in the dropdown. The printers Adobe Reader displays are mislabeled in its own UI - not elsewhere in the OS or in other applications (including Acrobat). You can reproduce this behavior using the instructions in my original post.

We actually noticed this problem internally with a different third-party virtual printer. I just used Microsoft Print to PDF as an example because it is common.

@Amal Jaiswal - FYI I am still able to reproduce this bug in 26.001.21677 FYI. Thanks!

Amal Jaiswal

Community Manager

@AndrewSAIF this issue is still under unvestigation by our engineering team and they are working on it. We will keep this discussion updated as soon as we have more information to share.

Thanks for your understanding.

~Amal

B_4479

Participant

As a workaround for us, choosing the printer below the one we want to use works.

Corey31598687ruaz

Participant

That is what we have been telling our users to do. I am hoping adobe publishes a fix via update soon.

Corey31598687ruaz

Participant

I am having the same issue. We raised a ticket with adobe support but I haven’t heard back.

A

AndrewSAIFAuthor

Inspiring

@Amal Jaiswal - Thank you very much!

@ARK26 For a workaround, I’ve been having my users figure out which printer is which by selecting different ones and clicking ‘Properties’ so they can make note of which printer is which. I don’t think the assignment is random every time, so once they know which one it’s mixed up with, they should be good unless a new software printer is added.

Amal Jaiswal

Community Manager

Hi @AndrewSAIF @ARK26

Hope you are doing well and thank you for bringing this issue to our attention and for the detailed issue description.

We have raised this to our development team internally, please give us some time to get this reviewed. We will keep you posted of the updates.

Thanks for your understanding.

~Amal

DPH94

Participant

Is there any update to this? We have a lot of confused users and this isn’t listed in the official known issues for Adobe as of yet.

Anand Sri Bhattacharya

Community Manager

Hello @DPH94

I hope you are doing well, and sorry for the trouble. The product team is working on isolating the root cause and on a fix. We’ve requested the team to expedite the process.

We’ll share an update as soon as we have something new.

Thanks for your cooperation and patience on this.

Regards,

Anand Sri

ARK26

Participant

Hi Team, just wondering is there an update (or) workaround I have the same issue as well.

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