Acrobat Pro and Reader Coexistence Issue on Windows Server 2019 RDS

[Dorthe27162149jszv]

Is it working now?

[Anshul_Nautiyal]

Hi @Dorthe27162149jszv,

Thank you for reaching out. Could you kindly provide more details about the issue you're facing? This will help me assist you more effectively.

Regards,

^AN

[Dorthe27162149jszv]

For years, we have had both Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Pro installed on W2K19 RDS servers, as some users run the Pro while the majority have used Reader to view PDF files.

Both were older versions, so we needed to update them.

• It is difficult to doublecheck now that we have upgraded, nbut I believe the previous version of Acrobat Pro was 22.x. The version we have upgraded to is 24.1.
• The earlier version of Acrobat Reader was 2101120039_MUI and the new version is 2400420220_MUI

When we installed Acrobat Pro the Reader was automatically removed / uninstalled.

When I then tried installing the 32- or 64-bit version of Reader I got an error about a conflict or existing software already present (= Acrobat Pro).

The support page Acrobat Reader migration to 64-bit (adobe.com) details that 32-bit version would automatically be upgraded to 64-bit.

On a forum post like Solved: Year 2024 - Installing both versions of Adobe Pro ... - Adobe Community - 14439348 it details that the 64-bit version is a Unified version and upon installing (= when we upgraded) Acrobat Pro wpuld upgrade the reader to Pro (= remove Reader).

So our problem is that it no longer seems possible to have Acrobat Pro and Reader co-exist.

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[Anshul_Nautiyal]

Hi @Dorthe27162149jszv ,

I am transferring your query to a different community where subject-matter experts will be better equipped to assist you. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Regards,

AN

[Dorthe27162149jszv]

Looking forward to hearing from you soon :+)

[Tariq Ahmad]

Hi all, 

I'm sorry for the delay in responding, and I’m sorry to hear about the challenges you’ve experienced.

Adobe has introduced a unified installer to streamline the user experience and eliminate confusion between Acrobat and Reader when accessing paid features.
If you have Reader installed and you purchase a subscription using the same email ID, Reader will automatically upgrade to the full version of Acrobat. This is to avoid long-tail user confusion about whether to use Acrobat and Reader for the Paid feature when both Reader and Acrobat used to be installed on the same machine.

If you’re still seeking a solution, please let me know. While Adobe officially does not support having both Reader and Acrobat installed on the same machine, I may have a workaround that we can explore together for your specific scenario. Although I can’t guarantee success, I’m happy to assist in testing the workaround.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

~Tariq