I found what worked for me. I also needed to re-apply it recently, when Reader was updated, but it does save me a lot of frustration.
Before trying this, you may wish to search to verify others have used this, successfully. It works with (free) Adobe Reader - may or may not work with other Adobe products. Requires permission to modify Windows registry. I use it in Windows 10 - unknown if the same for Windows 11. I can't take any credit for this fix, other than posting it here - I found the solution at acrobat.uservoice.com
ALWAYS backup your registry, before making ANY changes!! Be VERY careful you have spaces and double quote marks where shown below.
Update the value for Default, of Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Acrobat.Document.DC\shell\Open\command
Add this, in front of the "%1": /A "zoom=100&navpanes=0"
The resulting key value (key Data) should look similar to this (your Reader path may be different - leave whatever is currently there, unchanged):
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe" /A "zoom=100&navpanes=0" "%1"
Please note there are different/similar registry keys. I saw someone else updated their startup command that referenced AcroRd32.exe, instead of Acrobat.exe, so you may need to find the correct registry key for your Adobe Reader version, and again, it's unclear if this command line switch works for other Reader versions.
To narrow down the key you need to update, find the path/name of where your Reader is located (for example, mine is located in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe). You can then search your registry (you already backed up your registry, right?) for any keys that point to starting up this program. Hopefully you find a key that includes "shell\Open\command" in the path, like mine. I only updated the key shown above, and I no longer see the bookmarks pane, when the document is opened. The button to open the Bookmarks (right side of the screen) still works, when needed.
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