Hide "All tools" pane?

Report · Jun 30, 2023

Same problem as everyone else under the sun: I cannot figure out how to permanently hide the "All Tools" menu on Acrobat Pro 2023.003.20215.

Preferences > Documents > Open Settings > Remember Current State ... is just missing for me (and apparently for others, too.) And, depressingly, the registry keys bRHPSticky and bExpandRHPinViewer don't seem to affect Acrobat Pro.

Having to close and re-close the "All Tools" menu every single time I open a new PDF, all day every day, is exhausting and I hate it. Does anyone know a fix for this (aside from switching away from Adobe)?

Report · Mar 23, 2025

Here’s what worked for me:

Disabled New User Experience

Running Adobe Pro version 2025.001.20435 (64 Bit) on Win 11

To disable the new experience,

Click the hamburger menu ( 3 lines ) at the upper left corner and choose Disable new Acrobat

Tools Pane

To prevent the Tools pane from opening by default in Adobe Acrobat go to: Menu > Preferences > Documents and select "Remember last state of All tools pane when opening documents," then collapse the Tools pane, and save.

Navigation Pane / Bookmarks etc (Global Hide)

Right click on open pdf file. Navigate to: Document Properties\Initial View(Tab)\Navigation and change Bookmarks Panel and Page to Page Only. Then save . However, only works for that single document when opened in future.

If you want to turn off panes or all pdf files opened regardless of what set by creator and not have to change initial view and save then edit the registry.

Launch %windir%\regedit.exe
Navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Acrobat.Document.DC\shell\Open\command

String to be modified is similar to this:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe" "%1"

Change to: "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe" /A "navpanes=0" "%1"

Every pdf file from every location now opens up without the panes. Been annoying me for years.

View solution in original post

Report · Apr 16, 2025

3 month later - i tried the latest release 24.001.30246 from last week and it's still the same sh... They fixed an issue with erros popping up every time you close a file but it's still not possible to hide the "All Tools" panel.

Report · Apr 16, 2025

You can do this with the New Reader. Just go to Menu > Preferences > Documents > (5th checkbox) Remember last state of All tools pane when opening documents > Check on > Click OK at the bottom of the window.

Report · Apr 17, 2025

Thanks for your suggestion but: nope you can't. As I said in January the option is available but without any function when you install Acrobat Pro 2024 aka Acrobat Classic (https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/download-acrobat-pro-2024.html) in Reader Mode (ENABLE_READER_MODE=1)

Report · Jul 03, 2025

Ich habe das gleiche Problem und bin froh, hier in der Community von gleichen Problemen anderer zu lesen. Es nervt, immer aufs neue "All Tools" schließen zu müssen. Offenbar ging ein Update voraus, da es vor einigen Tagen noch nicht war. Stellt es bitte umgehend ab. Es ist ein großes Ärgernis.

Die Version lautet 2024.001.30254 64bit