Community Expert

Question

Acrobat X Pro suddenly stopped running on Windows 10

Forum|Forum|1 day ago
February 20, 2026
2 replies
37 views

Hey guys, I know this isn’t the Acrobat forum, but I know you and you know me so I figured I ask here as well

Acrobat X pro was running just fine until about 20 minutes ago. I downloaded, read, and cloed a PDF, and that was it. Next download wouldn’t open -- application failed to launch (or more likely quit before it finished loading).

I uninstalled and reinstalled, and now I get about 30 seconds before it quits.

Cross-posted at

I suspect it’s trying to verify some license component -- InDesign did that a couple weeks ago -- but I can’t find anywhere to deal with it.

Any ideas?

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Oh, Peter. I’m so sorry you are going through so much. I hope someone else will respond with some more suggestions for you. 🤞🏼

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Peter Spier

Author

Community Expert

I know you sent me a PM, but the system refuses to show it to me.

I’ve tried disabling the Genuine Software module and replacing the OOBE folder, neither of which made any difference.

I’m about to remove that Windows update

I really appreciate your time and thoughts.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

Hi Peter:

I’m sorry to hear this.

So you mean the Acrobat X Pro that reached end-of-life in 2015?

Was there a recent Windows update that might have impacted it?
Does Help > Repair Installation do anything?
What about running it in Win 7 compatibility mode?
Or disabling protected mode by racing to Edit > Preferences > Security (Enhanced) and unchecking "Enable Protected Mode at startup" before it crashes?

Hoping it’s not licensing because I’m fairly confident the activation servers were retired so if it is, I’m not sure how you will get around that.

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

Peter Spier

Author

Community Expert

Thanks for chiming in, Barb.

Ir’s really weird. I spent the last four days away starting a new drug regimen in the hospital and when I came home it just “happened.”

Last Windows update I installed was a couple of weeks ago when I ran the updated patch (Windows 10 version) for the issue causing so much trouble with InDesign 26 on Win 11. Been running fine for years up until yesterday. I’m not aware of any new updates to Win10 other than that since there haven’t bee any automatic updates for months.

I did try repairing the installation, both before and after the reinstall, with no change. Protected Mode is already disabled..

I’ll give the Win7 compatibility a shot. I was worried about the servers as well, but InDesign recovered OK a few weeks back (can’t remember the details, unfortunately), and activation seemed to work on the Acrobat reinstall yesterday. The problem seems to be exclusively in Acrobat as the other CS6 apps I run are all still functioning normally.

Peter Spier

Author

Community Expert

It was already in Win7 compatibility mode, and going down to XP or removing compatibly mode make no difference.

The program opens, sits apparently inactive after opening, then the Windows active cursor pops up and it closes, so seems to be doing something in the background that’s a problem. I can’t see it happen in Task Manager other than the Adobe Genuine Software module opens and closes several seconds before Acrobat quits.

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