Why does Acrobat force me to install McAfee, and adds Chrome Extensions?

[Taras29071405t1vj]

I wanted to install Acrobat Reader and downloaded the installer.  The installer itself automatically -- without any option to decline -- installed two McAfee programs.  It also went into my Chrome and installed some extensions that it never asked me about.  This is unacceptable behavior from a company like Adobe.  McAfee always conflicts with existing antivirus programs, which come built into Windows.  It's as if Adobe wants to intentionally break our computers or slow them down.  Unacceptable that the installer doesn't even give an option to decline the McAfee products.  Despicable.  

[Megan30306010mt1j]

Uncheck the "Install McAfee,,," box in the "Included With Your Download" section before downloading.

[JR Boulay]

[MOVED TO THE ACROBAT READER DISCUSSIONS]

[Meenakshi Negi · Accepted solution]

Hi Taras29071405t1vj,

Thank you for reaching out.

Acrobat Reader installer download includes the optional McAfee installer and Chrome add-ons. You may disable the option if you do not wish to install the McAfee installer. You may click on More download options at the bottom of the page to check all the optional installers. Refer to the screenshot below:

If you have already installed Acrobat Reader and trying to uninstall McAfee, uninstall the Acrobat Reader application.

Then reboot the machine and install Acrobat Reader from this page: https://get.adobe.com/reader/enterprise/. 

Let us know if you need any help.

Thanks,

Meenakshi

Marking a reply or response “Correct” will help future users with the same issue quickly identify the correct answer.

[D29811680u0p9]

Can someone verify if this actually works?

I've gone through multiple installs of Reader from this exact page and others, and either didn't get the check boxes to uncheck for McAfee install and Chrome extension install (depending on some sort of invisible context), or unchecking them doesn't prevent the installs, regardless of using Windows 10 or 11, on various computers of different models, types, and manufacturers, regardless of browser cache and cookies settings or clearing etc.

Apparently the Chrome extension is particularly invasive, as Adobe forces an auto-install reference in various places on the computer, like in the AppData folder or the Registry, and as long as those exist, every new Chrome install or profile you do will auto-add the extension. Cleaning this up feels similar to cleaning up a computer after a malware attack. It takes a lot of research, time, and scrubbing to deep-clean Adobe's "trojan" here (ultimately it's a PUA or unwanted software) that scans everything on every webpage you visit just in case it notices a PDF.

Adobe didn't used to be like this. They're a billion-dollar company that isn't satisfied with their overwhelming wealth and is now employing tactics to scam their way deeper into our computers after we've opted out of side installs or are not made aware they're going to happen.

Not sure how to deal with this outside of regulation or a class-action lawsuit at this point, as they have too much power in the "free market" (lol) so "voting with our wallet" or boycotting doesn't work here.

[AnandSri]

Hello!

I hope you are doing well, and we apologize for the delayed response and the trouble.

You can download a clean version of Adobe Reader with no bundled offers here: https://adobe.ly/3H4uj6K

Manually Remove Unwanted Components: Use Add or Remove Programs in Windows to uninstall McAfee products or other plug-in components. 

Thank you for your feedback; we appreciate you sharing your concerns. If you have a feature request or would like to suggest changes to an existing workflow or tool, please use the Adobe Wish form to submit it directly to the product team.

Regards,

Anand Sri.