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13 replies

JR Boulay
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 2, 2021

As Amal said : it's not recommended, and it's not supported by Adobe (yes!).

Installing and using Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Pro works fine on MacOS, I have done this for about 20 years with no issues.

Now I have been using Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Pro on Windows for about a year without any issues.

 

Acrobat Reader is redundant with Acrobat Pro, you shouldn't install it unless you need to check that certain features of your forms are working well.

 

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe
try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 2, 2021

I believe Adobe does support installing both applications on Windows, as long as they are of the same version (DC, for example).

RayConnonAuthor
Participant
June 2, 2021

Thanks everyone.

I too have been using Adobe for a long time, probably since version 1 in the 90's?

I had to restore my Windows 10 a week ago and am still putting apps back on.

Up until then I had a 32 bit version of Reader and also Acrobat Pro DC on this laptop.

I find it useful to have Reader installed for reading email attachments etc., testing forms and code written to automate Acrobat.

Today I installed Reader (which is now 64bit) from Adobe website, and then tried to install Acrobat Pro DC.

What has happened is that the Reader has been upgraded to Acrobat Pro DC.

And if Acrobat Pro DC is installed first, then that's all you get.

 

I guess I have to locate an earlier version of Reader and try again installing Reader, then Acrobat.

Amal.
Community Manager
Community Manager
June 2, 2021

Hi there

 

++ Adding to the discussion

 

Adobe Acrobat Reader DC application is a Subset of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC application, installing both the applications is ideally not recommended as it may result in unexpected behavior of the apps.

 

Regards

Amal

Participant
November 29, 2021

That's a regrettable position for Adobe to take, since it opens the door to 3rd-party PDF apps gaining larger market share. I have some users with Enterprise Adobe IDs to create/edit PDFs in Acrobat DC, but most users only need to quickly view/print PDFs with the Reader. If Acrobat Pro DC and Acrobat Reader DC cannot exist on the same device, that means it will be simpler for most people to use 3rd-party PDF viewers/printers (or let Microsft keep pushing Edge as the default for everything) -- and over time those users will get used to 3rd-party apps and stop perceiving Adobe products as familiar and useful. 

Bernd Alheit
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 2, 2021

Install the 32bit versions of both apps.

Participating Frequently
January 12, 2023

As of late 2022 this was no longer possible - installing the 2nd app automatically unbinstalled the 1st app.  Sometimes, a log in to the Reader app with a licensed user account automatically triggerred an install of Standard and an uninstall of Reader. That seems to be the the issue here.   

Participant
January 18, 2023

I am not against Acrobat Standard or Pro (S/P) having Adobe Reader as a subset of the main program but I am against having to be logged into Acrobat S/P in order to view a PDF file. I have a couple of general use computers that several people use that have no Acrobat S/P licensing and only need to view PDF documents. They are not able to unless someone with a license is available to login. Other times users with credentials use these same computers and require the full ability of Acrobat.

 

I am at the point of changing the default program for PDF viewer to Chrome and make my users select Acrobat for editing functions (open with...).

Adobe needs to have an option for Read-Only when Acrobat S/P is installed and someone, without an account, needs to view a PDF file.

 

My other option is to uninstall Acrobat and only use Reader. Seems like a poor choice.