Group Policy settings to control "Modern User Interface" for DIgit Signing

Report · Jun 25, 2017

Hey,

We've got an issue on a 2008 R2 terminal server where signing documents using Adobe Reader is causing app lockups.

I've found that disabling the "Modern User Interface" (in Preferences > Signatures > Creation & Appearance (More…) ) fixes the issue - however I have been unable to find a way to control this via group policy. I've tried running registry / file monitoring software to find the appropriate key / place to control this from with no luck.

As per this blog post - Digital signatures simplified | Adobe Content Corner - it states this can be controlled via Group Policy.

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“From Preferences > Signatures > Creation & Appearance (More…) you can uncheck the “Use modern user interface…” option to turn off the new experience and return to the old one. This preference is active by default and can be controlled by means of Registry (Windows) and Plist (MacOS) preferences, so it is suitable for a custom configuration with automated deployments of Acrobat.”

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I have searched through the online guide in the enterprise toolkit (Acrobat Customization Wizard DC for Windows) and have not been able to locate the relevant registry key / setting to disable the “Use modern user interface for signing and Digital ID configuration”.

Would anybody be able to point me in the right direction on how to achieve this via group policy?

Thanks

Leigh

Report · Jun 26, 2017

Try following forum:

Enterprise Deployment (Acrobat and Reader)

Report · May 21, 2019

I know this is post necromancy but I couldn't find the answer and had to run process monitor to see what was changing.

We ran into this issue with the latest update, the registry key is [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\Security\cPubSec] - set the value for DWORD "bEnableCEFBasedUI" to 0.

Report · Jul 23, 2019

Hi Leigh,

Matthew is correct. That registry key should disable/enable that setting for users and can be set via GPO. I use this as a reference for these types of settings:

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/PrefRef/Windows/endindex.html

We have the exact same thing happening in our environment where the Modern User Interface freezes the entire program whenever users try to "digitally sign" OR try to use the "send file".

This key disables the modern UI for the send file button.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown]

"bSendMailShareRedirection"=dword:00000000

The key Matthew mentioned disables it for the digital signage, however, as of late the key for digital signage is no longer working. I've opened a thread on that here:

Registry key to disable "Use modern user interface for signing and digital ID configuration" is not ...

Thanks

Report · Sep 14, 2022

Anyone who encounters similar behaviour in a virtualized environment may find this useful.

I encountered this issue with blank screens for Signature and other features after updating from Reader 2018.x to DC 2022.x in my organization's Virtualized Citrix Desktop (VAD) environment. The Fix I had to employ was to add the three Adobe processes to the UviProcessExcludes list for all VAD hosts at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\CtxUvi\UviProcessExcludes for DC Version 2022 the additions to the list should be 'otherprocesses.exe.....;Acrobat.exe;AcroCEF.exe;RdrCEF.exe'. Further Details can be found on the post I made at the bottom of page three here https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/403607-after-upgrading-715-ltsr-cu1-to-1906-opening-adobe-reade...

Please mark this as an accepted answer if this works for you!