Adobe Acrobat won't open. Not via click in Start Menu not by Run as Admin

[dadybear1234]

Yesterday, I uninstalled and reinstalled Adobe Acrobat on my Windows 10 PC. I could only open it as an Administrator, and I repeated these steps twice. I thought it might have been related to Malwarebytes Premium, but I no longer have that on my PC. Today, I uninstalled and reinstalled it again, and now it won't even open as Admin. Malwarebytes Premium is no longer on my system. Does anyone have any idea why this keeps happening?

[creative explorer · Accepted solution]

@dadybear1234 When you uninstall a program, Windows doesn't always remove every single file, folder, and registry key associated with it. When you reinstall, the new installation can be corrupted by leftover, bad files from the previous installation. In your case, your uninstall didn't do the greatest job somehow! The Adobe Acrobat Cleaner Tool is a utility provided by Adobe specifically to remove all traces of an Acrobat installation, including hidden files, folders, and registry entries that a normal uninstall would miss. https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

Run the tool, making sure to follow the on-screen instructions to completely remove your current installation. Restart your PC. Download a fresh installer for Acrobat from the Adobe website and reinstall it. Do not use an old installation file!

This is a last-resort but very effective troubleshooting step. Create a New User Account! If Acrobat works perfectly on a new user account with administrative rights, it means your original user profile is corrupted.

[dadybear1234]

I don't have the Creative Cloud because I was told that Creative Cloud is for users who have used paid versions of Adobe apps. I use Adobe Acrobat to view PDFs when needed. Would the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool work without having the Creative Cloud downloaded on my computer? Also, why I could use Adobe Acrobat one week to view a PDF, then the following week could not, unless I ran as Administrator, doesn't make sense. Also, I used Revo Uninstaller to uninstall Adobe, and it does an excellent job at deleting those leftovers.

[AnandSri]

Hello @dadybear1234

I hope you are doing well. Thanks for reaching out. It sounds like you've been through quite a bit of troubleshooting already—thanks for laying it out so clearly.

Even though you don’t have Creative Cloud installed, the Adobe Acrobat Cleaner Tool can still be used to fully remove all traces of Acrobat—including hidden files, folders, and registry entries that Revo Uninstaller might miss. Download the Acrobat Cleaner tool, run it, and restart the machine. Download a fresh installer for Acrobat from the official Adobe site. You can also remove the Creative Cloud app if it is installed. 

For testing purposes, create a new test user profile with admin rights, install Acrobat, and check the functionality. If Acrobat works under a new user account with admin rights, your original Windows profile might be corrupted. Ensure you have all the mandatory and optional updates of the operating system installed. 

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

[dadybear1234]

I appreciate all your time on this matter. Unfortunately, the Creative Cloud Tool, which I ran twice, failed both times. I deleted the Folders, then used Revo Registry Cleaner to clean up the Registry Keys. All 337 of them.

[AnandSri]

Hello @dadybear1234

Thank you for sharing the details. Please use the Acrobat Cleaner tool once to remove any traces of the application and any corrupt files, then reboot the machine. Check for any pending updates of the operating system and install all the mandatory and optional updates. Restart the machine and try installing the app.

As suggested earlier, you can create a test user profile with full admin rights and try installing Acrobat to see if that works. If the issue still persists in the new user profile, please provide the following information: the current version of the operating system on your device and the logs from the affected machine. To collect the logs, download and run the Log Collector tool. Make sure to select all log options and attempt to reproduce the issue. After that, close the Log Collector tool; it will generate the logs along with a log ID. Please share this log ID with us for further investigation.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.