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D
Doc Maik
Legend
September 22, 2020
Answered

How to remove PDFmaker from Office?

  • September 22, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 19678 views

Hello!

New Office365 since recently, new Acrobat DC installed and one annoying add-in called PDFmaker keeps appearing in the Office apps, putting buttons and more. I can disable it, but I want to completely remove it from Office.

Strangely, Office says "it can't be removed because it has been installed for all users" which isn't true because I'm the only user of the Acrobat installation and since the CC apps are user-related I doubt it could install the add-in for all users. Anyway, it's still listed in the add-in list and this is annoying.

Any idea? I wish there was a separate installer or the actual installation of Adobe's apps could be user-defined, but those times are gone... 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Test Screen Name

PDFMaker is an integral part of Acrobat. Indeed, for many people, it is the key thing they are buying. PDFMaker, as well as its visible aspect in Office, is what is used by anyone choosing

- right click convert Office to PDF

- open Office doc in Acrobat

- other functions

I believe that if you remove it, Acrobat will detect this as a damaged installation and repair. You'd remove it by running Word as admin, which I can't recommend.

2 replies

D
Doc MaikAuthor
Legend
September 25, 2020

Is there actually a customizable offline installer for Acrobat? I only found this one https://helpx.adobe.com/download-install/kb/download-install-acrobat-subscription.html and it's only a downloader and it will, most likely, also do a silent installation. With an offline installer I could solve the PDFmaker problem by uninstalling Acrobat and re-installing.

D
Doc MaikAuthor
Legend
September 25, 2020

Hmm, I somehow can't edit my last reply. 

I found also this one: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/acrobat-dc-downloads.html

Let's give it a try.

T
Test Screen NameCorrect answer
Legend
September 25, 2020

PDFMaker is an integral part of Acrobat. Indeed, for many people, it is the key thing they are buying. PDFMaker, as well as its visible aspect in Office, is what is used by anyone choosing

- right click convert Office to PDF

- open Office doc in Acrobat

- other functions

I believe that if you remove it, Acrobat will detect this as a damaged installation and repair. You'd remove it by running Word as admin, which I can't recommend.

Meenakshi Negi
Community Manager
Meenakshi NegiCommunity Manager
Community Manager
September 22, 2020

Hi Doc_Maik,

 

Thank you for reaching out.

 

Adobe Acrobat PDFMaker (the Convert To Adobe PDF button in the PDFMaker toolbar/tab) is an add-in that creates PDF files from Microsoft Office applications. This feature installs with Acrobat Professional and Standard. 

There is no direct way to completely remove the plugin from the MS Office at once. You may disable and remove the add-in from the MS office application one by one.

 

 

If you wish, you may customize the installation with the help of Acrobat DC Customization Wizard. Please refer to the information provided in the following help document: https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Wizard/features.html

 

Hope the information helps.

Let us know if you have any questions.

 

Thanks,

Meenakshi

D
Doc MaikAuthor
Legend
September 23, 2020

Thanks, but like I said I can't remove it because Office says "It has been installed for all users. Only an admin can remove". I am an admin on my PC. Deactivation also doesn't work, it comes back the next day. Yes, it seems like this is a matter of Office, I'm aware, but it's caused by Acrobat installing the add-in unasked.  

I wanted to give the wizard a try, but ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobat/win/AcrobatDC/misc/ cannot be accessed (link broken or our firewall blocks). The link is on https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/Wizard/basics.html

 

D
Doc MaikAuthor
Legend
September 23, 2020

I'm gonna check this with our IT staff. Why FTP? I mean, Adobe has so many storage solutions.

 

Something else, in relation to this: Acrobat also installs handlers in Office and Windows which would cause to load the acrotray.exe when opening an Explorer window. This is extremely annoying as the tray tool is running in the background all the time. It would also run when never starting Acrobat in a day's work time.

I suppose I can also get rid of this using the wizard. 

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