Feature Request: choose which plugins I want

[Mike35497488gnun]

Hi,

So Adobe Acrobat Reader just updated for me. I appreciate the updates, and Adobe's reader is the best PDF reader out there.

But I have a feature request.

Please allow me, in the Preferences editor, to tell Acrobat Reader to stop re-installing and re-enabling plugins in other software packages (such as Chrome, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) that I never asked for and have switched off (I switched them off, of course, because I don't want them!).

I have attached a pretty rough sketch (I'm no graphic artist) of what it could possibly look like.

I would be deeply grateful if Adobe could accommodate this request.

[JR Boulay]

[MOVED TO THE ACROBAT READER DISCUSSIONS]

[Mike35497488gnun]

Thanks for moving my post to the correct place! Sorry for my mistake.

[Mike35497488gnun]

https://community.adobe.com/t5/creative-cloud-services-discussions/how-to-stop-adobe-add-ins-from-re...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/tricks-to-remove-adobe-plugins-from-ms-office-sui...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Adobe/comments/1b1hfav/disable_office_com_addins_forever/

Turns out I'm not the only one who feels this way.

[Mike35497488gnun]

So, Acrobat Reader updated itself again today, and now these unrequested, detested plugins are back in all my non-Adobe software.

Hey Adobe: STOP IT. I love the reader, and I want it to STAND ALONE. Stay out of my other applications. Or at least give us users control to decide whether we want your plugins. As I've noted earlier, there are quite a few of us who don't.

[S. S · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mike35497488gnun,

Hope you are doing well. Sorry for your experience with the Adobe PDFMaker plugin.

In case you are still looking for a solution and if you do not wish to use the plugin and completely remove it, here are a few registry settings that you can try:

Go to Start > Registry Editor > Location:

• For x64 machine: create Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\AVAlert\cCheckbox
• For x86 machine: create Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\WOW6432Node\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\AVAlert\cCheckbox

Once done, create a DWORD iAlwaysEnablePDFMAddin and set it to 2.

This will ensure no dialog is shown, and the add-in will not be enabled.

Note: The registry location might differ a bit depending on the version of Acrobat /Reader you are using.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Souvik.

[Mike35497488gnun]

Hi,
I'm sorry to respond so late. I am trying this on a client computer now (I
finally uninstalled all things Adobe from my own computer).

Thanks so very much for this workaround!! While it would be better if Adobe
made it easy for users to manage these preferences, at least there is a
documented workaround now.
Thank you!
Mike

[Mike35497488gnun]

It's unfortunate that someone marked this answer as correct.

Now that I've been able to test it on a couple of computers, these registry settings do not disable the unwanted and unasked for Adobe plugins.

I am indeed grateful for the attempt at a workaround.

I note that the "AVAlert" key didn't exist. I created it and the subkeys, per the instructions. But perhaps another key is where this cCheckbox subkey and the DWORD should be created?

Here are my pre-existing keys that begin with "AV" under "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC":

- AVConnector

- AVConversionFromPDF

- AVConversionToPDF

- AVEntitlement

- AVGeneral

- AVPrivate

- AVTracker

...unless these settings disable the browser plugins but not the Microsoft 365 plugins? Both are quite unwanted.