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Peter Spier
Community Expert
Peter SpierCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 20, 2026
Question

Does anyone know why Acrobat X Pro suddenly stopped working today on my Windows 10 system?

  • February 20, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 35 views

I know, it’s old, but up until 20 minutes ago it ran fine. I opened a PDF, read and closed it, and that was it. Wouldn’t even launch until I removed and reinstalled, but it won’t stay open more than about 30 seconds.

    3 replies

    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Peter SpierCommunity ExpertAuthor
    Community Expert
    February 24, 2026

    Thanks to both of you! 

    Didn’t need to mess with the redistributables or .net framework (though thanks for the suggestion -- I’d forgotten those were getting messed up). Think I got lucky

    I can’t tell you how much I hate the new version of Acrobat, but I had to install it on Sunday to get some work done.

    monugautam
    monugautam
    Participant
    February 24, 2026

    Fixes you can try

    1) Reset Acrobat preferences

    • Press Win + R

    • Type:

       

      %appdata%\Adobe\Acrobat

    • Rename the Acrobat folder (for example: Acrobat_old)

    • Launch Acrobat again

    2) Disable Protected Mode

    If Acrobat stays open long enough:

    • Go to Edit → Preferences → Security (Enhanced)

    • Uncheck “Enable Protected Mode at startup”

    3) Run in Compatibility Mode

    • Right-click Acrobat icon → Properties → Compatibility

    • Enable Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 7

    • Also check Run as administrator

    4) Repair system components

    • Go to Control Panel → Programs

    • Repair all Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables

    • Update/repair .NET Framework

    5) Check plugins

    • Go to:

       

      C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat\plug_ins

    • Temporarily remove any third-party plugins and test again

    MonuGautam
    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Peter SpierCommunity ExpertAuthor
    Community Expert
    February 20, 2026

    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?

    creative explorer
    Community Expert
    creative explorerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 24, 2026

    ​@Peter Spier you nailed it on the head. I wouldn’t have uninstalled it in this case, because that likely opened a different can of worms. If it worked before, but then you did an update to your PC, that likely killed Acrobat X. My wife’s PC literally bit the dust, but if I can remember, I used to the Distiller trick. Before opening Acrobat, try launching Acrobat Distiller (it should be in the same folder). Sometimes Distiller will trigger the "Accept License Agreement" pop-up that the main Acrobat app is failing to display before it crashes. If you can "Accept" the terms in Distiller, it often validates the license for the entire suite/package. Another trick was telling my wife to ‘disconnect’ from the internet and purge the files in the cache files and the re-open Acrobat. 

    m
    Peter Spier
    Community Expert
    Peter SpierCommunity ExpertAuthor
    Community Expert
    February 24, 2026

    Starting distiller didn’t do the trick, but it gave me the idea to launch Acrobat and try checking for updates from the help menu before it crashed, and it was able to complete that.

    I was surprised that even after restoring the program files from backup after the reinstall failed to solve things there was an update available, and it installed, and hallelujah it’s working again.

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