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A
Ade@lunch
Participant
March 10, 2023
Answered

Adobe Acrobat standard and Pro on same RDS server

  • March 10, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 3820 views

Hi. Our users access Adobe Acrobat Standard on an RDS server, but one has asked if he can have the ability to compare documents. I believe that function is only available on Acrobat Pro, so just wondering if anyone knows if both versions can happily live alongside each other on the same RDS server?

 

Many thanks in advance.

Correct answer Amal.

Hi @Ade@lunch 

 

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

 

Unfortunately, You can not have Acrobat Std and Acrobat Pro together on same server. As this is correct it will overwrite the existing version of Acrobat, you can only have either one of them.

 

Hope this information will help.

 

Regards

Amal

 

Hey! Spread the word and help others by marking the correct answer so future users can benefit from your experience.

 

 

2 replies

D
diamedca
Participating Frequently
August 13, 2025

You can have both functionalities on the same server.

I tested this today (August-13-2025) and it worked for my terminal server.

 

Basically Adobe unified the installer (and the software) into a single version.

If you don't login, you have the reader, if you login and have a valid license, then you can use all tools.

The issue is, that after installing the reader and login in with a licensed credential, the adobe updates to the pro version and then it will ask all other users to login. To avoid Adobe forcing to login, you have to enable "reduce mode"

 

Then the procedure would be to install adobe acrobat DC (Not the reader) and then add a registry Key to enable reduce mode.

 

The registry key to enable reduced mode for Acrobat 64-bit is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown:"bIsSCReducedModeEnforcedEx"=dword:0000001

 

I found the above in this adobe procedure:
https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/VirtualizationGuide/singleinstaller.html
At the end of the procedure you will find the Registry Key that needs to be added to enable "reduce mode":

D
diamedca
Participating Frequently
August 14, 2025

Here is the link for the unified installer:
https://trials.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/APRO/Acrobat_HelpX/win32/Acrobat_DC_Web_x64_WWMUI.zip

 

Then after installing it, you have to go to the registry and add a DWORD key:
bIsSCReducedModeEnforcedEx
Value: 1
The path for the DWORD in the registry is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown

 

I did the above on August 13, 2025 and it worked on my Windows Server 2022 Datacenter.

But if that does not work, then try the Non Unified installer, that claims to live installed side by side with acrobat reader. Here is the link for the non unified:
https://trials.adobe.com/AdobeProducts/APRO/Acrobat_HelpX/win32/Acrobat_DC_Web_WWMUI.zip
Notice that the difference is that the Unified is 64bit and the non unified is 32bit, meaning, if you want both, the reader version should be 64bit.

 

Both links were found in this page:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-dc-downloads.html

Amal.
Amal.Correct answer
Legend
March 10, 2023

Hi @Ade@lunch 

 

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out.

 

Unfortunately, You can not have Acrobat Std and Acrobat Pro together on same server. As this is correct it will overwrite the existing version of Acrobat, you can only have either one of them.

 

Hope this information will help.

 

Regards

Amal

 

Hey! Spread the word and help others by marking the correct answer so future users can benefit from your experience.

 

 

A
Ade@lunchAuthor
Participant
March 10, 2023

OK thank you Amal for getting back to me so quickly. I will let my user know.

Regards

Ade

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