How to Disable new Acrobat Reader using RegEdit or GPO?

[Søren24325087d6r3]

Hi

Since the latest update of Adobe Reader, it has changed into a new look.

This is VERY annoying, since the plugin we use for iManage don't show with the new look/interface.

So we need to disable it for all our users manually.

There must be a smarter way? maybe a Reg key or using GPO?

thanks you

[Syed Muhammad32347792vodj]

HI,

Did you find any solution related to this issue ?

[Søren24325087d6r3]

No 😞

[richcherry67]

I am not an expert and I have a limited number of users to deal with on this but I took a look at what changes in the registry under \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat change when I selected Disable new Acrobat and its 100's of keys... its more like your installing a different application than changing a setting... which makes sense in that it reboots the app when you do it manually.   Note I am taking about Acrobat Pro

In theory if you have a huge acrobat pro subscription environment it looks like you could deploy the Adobe uninstall tool and he Adobe Remote Update Manager.

these tools give you command line ability to uninstall the current version Acrobat Pro as described here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/uninstall-creative-cloud-products.html

and

command line ability to install a previous version as described here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/using-remote-update-manager.html

If they work as my quick read indicates you could first deploy the apps and then remotely run a script to automat the uninstall and deploy a former version… definitely a lot of ifs and testing involved to do this… if they are so big on cloud they should build this ability into the team admin console.

[Matt31998261lq17]

You can set the bEnableAV2Enterprise registry key under FeatureLockDown (Lockable Settings) for Modern Viewer using the Acrobat Enterprise Toolkit (ETK) preference reference 

[Josiah36108087mhe0]

Modify HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\bEnableAV2

Set the value to 0. You can set this up in the Registry. Hope this helps 🙂

[Lotsch367898772vwk]

It does not help really , Acrobat still starts in New Version.
And with some Documents with Textboxes still appears

[Chris374349659ljw]

I think I may have the solution for this! From testing, it looks like you can create/update the following keys and then New Adobe Reader should be disabled as default :

\\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\bEnableAV2 DWORD Value = 0 (Create)

\\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\bisFirstLaunch DWORD Value = 0 (Create)

\\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\iPDFOnwerType DWORD Value = 1 (Create)

\\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AVGeneral\iNumReaderLaunches DWORD Value = 9 (Update)

Applied this to a test user that was having New Adobe opening and leading to the offending error message, and after doing so the issue no longer occurred - hopefully this is of help to everyone!

[jamie12831058]

Just a followup to Chris374349659ljw's post.  When using the above registry paths, be sure that the path for your environment is correct for these entries.  In our case, we needed to update "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC" to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC"

[JM-Tech]

Seems like either setting bEnableAV2 to 0 or deleting sets it to the classic ui.

I'm using it with Acrobat Pro but same result. Sets it to the classic ui. I've added it to my custom deployment profile for Acrobat Pro DC Enterprise.

[susan37437978n8pp]

Absolutely, there are indeed smarter ways to handle this situation than manually disabling the plugin for each user. You can utilize Group Policy Objects (GPOs) to enforce settings across your organization or deploy registry keys to configure Adobe Reader settings uniformly.

Firstly, if you're using a Windows environment, GPOs offer centralized management and can be used to enforce settings for Adobe Reader across all users or specific groups. You can create a GPO that disables the plugin or configures the interface settings as per your requirements. This ensures consistency and saves time compared to manual adjustments.

Alternatively, you can deploy registry keys to configure Adobe Reader settings. You can create a registry script or package the necessary registry keys into a Group Policy Preference (GPP) to apply them to user machines. By setting the appropriate registry keys, you can disable the plugin or revert the interface to its previous look without requiring manual intervention on each user's device.

Both GPOs and registry keys offer scalable and efficient solutions for managing software settings across your organization. Depending on your environment and preferences, you can choose the approach that best suits your needs and ensures seamless management of Adobe Reader updates and configurations.