Disable adobe right-click context menu using Active Directory

[Norman__ProvGld_]

Hello,

We would like to disable the adobe right mouse click context menu for our employees that don't have rights to use the Adobe Acrobat pro XI software. With Active Directory we can control the users in GROUPS who can see and use the Adobe acrobat pro XI software, but as standard all users see the adobe acrobat pro right click context menu which is used to convert/combine to PDF.

We can disable the whole adobe context menu by editing or removing the root registry key (see under) but then the users with rights for adobe pro XI can't use it anymore. Normally enabling/disabling registry keys isn't a problem when it's a current user key, but the context menu is found in the ROOT class.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A6595CD1-BF77-430A-A452-18696685F7C7}\InprocServer32]

@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Adobe\\Acrobat 11.0\\Acrobat Elements\\ContextMenuShim64.dll"

"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"

Can somebody help us how we can manage the right click context menu using Active Directory user Groups?

If there are any questions, just let me know!

Norman Etty

Application Manager

[naderi · Accepted solution]

Or just run the Command Promt (or PowerShell) as Administrator and enter these commands:

cd /d C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat Elements

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenuShim64.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu64.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu.dll

that will remove Adobe Acrobat DC context menu without deleting the files.

[Norman__ProvGld_]

We found a solution that we are now testing.

In windows registry it is possible to configure permissions for every key. We found that by simply clicking right mouse click on the registry key .

[enzordrocka]

Why would Adobe assume this is answered? Because Adobe doesn't care.

[Jon Fritz]

enzordrocka  wrote

Why would Adobe assume this is answered? Because Adobe doesn't care.

Nope, marking as Assumed Answered is an option when creating a post.

It should be fixed now.

[davescm]

The original poster that started a thread  can mark individual answers as correct or the entire post as "assumed answered"

Dave

[TorSoft]

go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat Elements"

and delete these three files below

ContextMenu.dll

ContextMenu64.dll

ContextMenuShim64.dll

that will remove Adobe Acrobat DC context menu

[vgioforum]

Thank you!  This worked perfectly.

[jessee37036604]

TorSoft  wrote

go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat Elements"

and delete these three files below

ContextMenu.dll

ContextMenu64.dll

ContextMenuShim64.dll

that will remove Adobe Acrobat DC context menu

In case anyone has trouble deleting them like I did, you may need to restart the computer and navigate to that folder via command prompt and remove it from there.

I found merely opening file explorer causes it to use that file, so I couldn't delete it as long as file explorer was open.

[Steve Cordero]

This is trying to think "outside the box" and would not be supported, but rather than delete files for the program, why not use the built in Windows functionality to just unregister the dlls per USER/GROUP with a Startup/Shutdown script controlled by GPO. This way you maintain the integrity of the application for those users who do have permissions and those who do not have permissions.

[_-_3]

That's probably a good GPO environment solution, would be nice to have it included in the Acrobat settings as well, for individual users. This is quite common in software that offers to use shell extensions..

[Itnewbee]

As answer to the original post to allow only authorized people access to the ContextMenu items of Adobe (like in a Terminal Server environment (TSE) (like Citrix)), I would suggest to apply AD-permissions on registrykey:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Adobe.Acrobat.ContextMenu]

and not on the GUID-key.

Register DLL-files and unregister them, is a pretty drastic measure and will work on a 'stand alone' situation, not on a TSE.

[naderi · Accepted solution]

Or just run the Command Promt (or PowerShell) as Administrator and enter these commands:

cd /d C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat Elements

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenuShim64.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu64.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu.dll

that will remove Adobe Acrobat DC context menu without deleting the files.

[Andreas Jansson]

Thank you Naderi! After uregistering those dll:s, using your code, context menus appear ligthning fast when right clicking on files, just as when my computer was new. There has been a short delay when I right click any file, for quite a while. Now I realize it was due to the Acrobat explorer integration, after installing Acrobat. Adobe needs to address this, so that the Acrobat Windows integration is not done by default, when installing Acrobat, since it slows down right click menus like this. Especially since there is no built-in option to remove the Windows integration.

(The delay is distict even on a fast computer with SSD.)

Removing the entries in the registrey using regsvr32 /u is a much better option than deleting the files, that was suggested above.

I also want to stress that you really need to run the command prompt as Administrator. Naderi wrote that, but I tried running with my own user first anyway, and got messages stating success, so I thought it might have worked, but the menu items were still there after restarting the computer. After running the same lines of code from a command window opened as Administrator it worked fine (right-click on cmd, select "run as administrator", and paste Naderi's code into the command prompt window, or paste it into a .bat file and run it as administrator by right clicking).

[afonsopm]

I wish to do exactly the oposite, to turn back the Acrobat rght-click options.

Is there a way to do so?

[talented_Eclipse5DAA]

Now its August 2020. I've tried running the following in the elevated command prompt:

cd /d C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat Elements

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenuShim64.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu64.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu.dll

regsvr32.exe /u ContextMenu.dll

And also deleted the 3 files.

The damn context menu WILL be back but not because of updating the Adobe Acrobat DC, but simply by opening any 2 PDF files, AND dragging any of them outside of the Adobe Acrobat DC, just to have 2 windows side-by-side. The menu will be back. The deleted files will be back too! Anyone can try this. 

I also tried deleting the context menu from CCleaner, similarly it is not permanent.

Damn you Adobe! I wish I can mark this thread as unanswered!

[Siri5FD3]

Same here... I want to disable only Ctrl  Right Click

[TerminalFIN · Accepted solution]

Sorry to resurrect an old threat, but I solved this today with the help of Adobe support. 

Modify the registry key located at Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Adobe.Acrobat.ContextMenu. Change the value for (Default) by adding two dashes to the front of the string, --{A6595CD1-BF77-430A-A452-18696685F7C7}. 

This solved it for me and the context menu entries are gone!