Acrobat ignores printer passed via /t or printto and uses last UI-selected printer

Hello,

I’m facing an issue with Adobe Acrobat Reader 25.1.20997.0 when doing automated printing.

Issue Scenario:

I have:

• One physical printer

• One virtual printer driver

I print PDFs in two ways:

1. Manually from Acrobat UI
2. Programmatically from my Virtual printer driver using :

• ShellExecute with verb = "printto"

Problem

While printing a file from Adobe Acrobat Reader I select the physical printer and the file is printed successfully.

In the next instance, when I use "printto" verb  programmatically from my Virtual printer driver, Adobe Acrobat Reader does not use the printer(my Virtual printer driver) passed via "printto", instead the file is printed to the physical printer selected in the previous instance.

This issue occurs in PC with below configuration:
OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Home 24H2
Version: 10.0.26100 Build 26100


I have tried Changing default printer to my virtual printer driver, adding delays, and  retries which do not fix this issue. It looks like Adobe Acrobat Reader caches the last-used printer and ignores the printer name  passed via "printto" verb.

• Is this a known bug or limitation?
• Is there any supported way to Clear Acrobat’s internal printer cache?
• Is it possible to programatically force Acrobat Reader to always print to the printer passed via "printto" verb.
• Can I programatically disable reuse of last UI printer?
  
  
  

Any guidance or fix or workaround would be appreciated.

Thank you.