General setting "Always open PDFs in Adobe Acrobat DC" appeared over the weekend

[evanm65091338]

Small shop, ~75 machines, Acrobat and Reader installed on all of them so any user can use any machine and have the tools they need.

On about 30% of my machines a new option ("Always open PDFs in Adobe Acrobat DC") appeared in Reader DC's General preferences over the weekend, and enabled itself.  This pushed everyone into Acrobat, and with no license they could not open PDFs.  We ended up manually changing the file association to something other than Adobe Reader (typically Chrome) so our users could work.  All machines are on the identical version of Reader DC (2019.021.20049), and updates are disabled, for compatibility with a 3rd party application.

After hours of searching including an unhelpful 2+ hour chat with support, I finally stumbled upon the option.  It exists on only the users' machines that reported the problem.  The setting is not even available on the unaffected machines.

Where did this option come from?  How was it enabled without any user or administrator action?  How do I disable it and the process that activated it?

[evanm65091338]

I am now receiving reports from users that have unchecked the "Always open PDFs in Adobe Acrobat DC" option are now having to re-uncheck the option.  

[evanm65091338]

I have just found this post: https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader/adobe-documents-opening-in-adobe-pro-not-reader-defaul.... From meenakshin83966505 Oct. 22, 2019 response: "After the recent update, if you have an active subscription of Acrobat and the application is installled on the machine, the PDF will always open in Acrobat automatically even if the ReaderDC set as default PDF viewer."; my issue is a "designed behavior".

[ravinderg62643219]

Hi,

Apologies for the trouble you had using Reader. If you have a more functional product that is Acrobat on your machine along with Reader, we prefer you should use Acrobat .

However in case you still want to use Reader, please try the following steps

1. Launch Reader by double click the Reader icon on your desktop.

2. Go to Edit->Preferences.

3. In the Preferences dialog go to General category.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the dialog.

5. Uncheck the option "Always open PDFs in Adobe Acrobat DC"

6. Click on OK and close the Reader.

Regards

Ravi

[evanm65091338]

Ravi,

Thank you very much for your reply.  That is the solution I found on my own, unfortunately some of my users are reporting the setting reverting to enabled. Also, albyna33648091 in https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader/quot-always-open-pdf-s-in-adobe-acrobat-dc-quot-not-re... is reporting something similar, so I'm not alone.

So the issue stands... What registry setting or Active Directory Group Policy do I push to my domain to disable the option?  Better yet, how do I eliminate the option entirely?  I know that should be possible as the option exists on some machines and does not exist on others.

[Kathleen33221673un83]

Hi Ravi, I believe you can no longer click on edit and get to preferences, it does not appear under edit any longer. You have to click control and K instead.