How to permanently disable features

[marie_5885]

Windows 11 PC - I've been having intermittent issues with Adobe Reader not opening PDFs, or not opening at all even by trying to manually open it.  So I downloaded the latest Reader version, which appears to be Continuous Release 2025.001.20467/64-bit.  I HATE IT!

For one thing, it takes forever to get the document completely open, because it has to load AI, and the tool panel, and prompt about spelling mistakes, and whatever the little tool box is too. I have the free version because I only use it to read PDFs that I download to my PC.  I have tried to disable AI under preferences but it makes no difference.

I can close the tool panel and the spelling errors, and the AI box each time I open it, but I'd rather be able to just never have them appear unless I actively chose them.

Is there any way to do this? Or maybe I need to try to download an older version and hope that it will keep working for me? If not, I may have to abandon Adobe and look elsewhere for a PDF reader.

[creative explorer · Accepted solution]

@marie_5885 You could 'Disable new Acrobat' under the View Settings.....Honestly, I don't have this issue but, only because I 'Disabled it!'

You will likely need to restart Acrobat.

And when you go back to View, it should look like this:

Hopefuly, this will speed things up. 

[marie_5885]

Your screen looks like the Mac version. My Windows version only has a Menu option at the top, and in that, there is an option to disable new Acrobat Reader. I have done that several times - it tells me I have to restart Reader, which I do , but nothing changes.

[marie_5885]

Here's a screenshot of what my options are.

[creative explorer · Accepted solution]

@marie_5885 that's right. But, make sure you have nothing open. Click on Disable, it should restart, and if you g back in it should say Enable New Acrobat. 

Now, if it didn't, then I would consider re-installing it. Uninstall and then use Adobe Cleaner to truly wipe it out! https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html and then go back to adobe.com, and install it again