I've seen other threads like this one in various forums, so I know I'm not alone:
acrobat pro 2017 closes 2 seconds after start, no activation possible
My company has recently purchased 5 copies of Acrobat Standard 2017 (non-subscription). The laptops getting these installs are all recent or new Dell XPS laptops running Windows 10 Version 1709. Our default set of software includes Acrobat Reader DC, but the person who installed Standard 2017 did not remove Reader DC prior. Despite that, 3 of the 5 open Acrobat Standard 2017 without a problem. However, the remaining 2 do not. Both immediately close after the splash screen disappears and the main program appears. This happens within 1-2 seconds of launch.
What I have done so far is:
1) Uninstall Reader DC.
2) Uninstall Acrobat Standard 2017.
3) Ran the Acrobat cleaner twice (once for Standard and the second time for Reader).
4) Reboot.
5) Remove all Adobe folders in <username>\appdata\local and roaming.
6) Remove all Adobe folders in c:\program files (x86) and c:\program files
7) Remove the Adobe folders in Common Files (in the above two locations)
8) Run CCleaner to clean out the temp folder and remove the registry entries.
9) Reboot.
10) Install Acrobat Standard 2017.
11) Repeated steps 2-9, but decided to install Acrobat Standard in trial mode, just to see if it was a licensing problem.
Same result. So, I called into Adobe support. I spent nearly 30 minutes on hold and another 40 minutes speaking to a polite level 1 tech who ran a repair of the install. Didn't work. She updated the Adobe Application Manager by downloading it directly. Didn't work. She removed the two localhost entries from the hosts file that Microsoft puts there by default and are commented out already, so that had zero impact. She also gave the impression that she fiercely believed right-clicking on the desktop and selecting refresh a few times in a row would magically make Acrobat Standard launch correctly. She did that after nearly every step she tried and I was stuck between anger and amusement most of the time.
I did tell her that Distiller produces a different error that states that the "license has expired or has not been activated", believing it might be related. She tried a licensing fix utility she downloaded and was stumped that the .PDB file kept prompting her to go to the Microsoft Store to find an application to open it or to pick an existing application that could use it. She did that 2 or 3 times and I had to tell her it isn't an executable and there seemed to be a file missing. After a few more desktop refreshes, she gave up and said 2nd level will have to call me. I've not heard anything yet and these users are our sales team. They travel and the one user I've been working on with this will be in Europe for the next two weeks. Fortunately, I have an alternative PDF reader that I was able to install so he isn't dead in the water. And as for the license, I can see the key (and all others of ours) in our account when I login to accounts.adobe.com.
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