Right-click options on Word documents no longer appear

[MaxSverdlove]

I'm not sure when this started, but it was before I just updated to the latest version of Acrobat this morning. I think it may have happened after my computer finally updated to Windows 2004/20H2 this weekend....

But, when I right click on any word document, I no longer have the options to Convert to PDF or to combine files to PDF. If I open Word, I do get the Convert to PDF in the Word Application and that works fine. BUT, I can't just right-click on the file on my desktop (or in an explorer window) to do so.

Same thing, if I select 2 Word documents, I can't combine them to PDF from the desktop.

If I select a PDF document, no problems... I get the proper right-click menu options.

I've tried uninstalling Acrobat, reboot, Reinstall Acrobat. I've tried the Acrobat Cleanup Tool. Reboot, Reinstall Acrobat.

Nothing seems to work.

My setup:

Adobe Creative Cloud (subscriber) install of Acrobat DC Pro

Windows 10 20H2 all up to date

HP ZBook G5 Studio Mobile Workstation

Any ideas?

[MaxSverdlove]

Just realized, I never put down what version of Office I have installed..

Microsoft 365 subscription - Click-to-Run 32-bit versions - fully up to date.

[TanviRastogi]

Hi

Can you please share if Acrobat ribbon is visible in the Office applications - Word/Excel/PPT and if you are able to create PDFs using it?

You can also try troubleshooting steps mentioned here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/troubleshoot-acrobat-pdfmaker-problems-office.html

Let us know of they work for you.

Thanks

Tanvi

[MaxSverdlove]

Yes, it shows up and does work.

My issue is 100% that it doesn't show up in the right-click contextual menus on the desktop and Explorer windows.

It shows up on JPGs, it shows up on TXTs, it shows up on PDFs.

It shows up on DOCs, but not DOCXs...

It does show up on XLSXs....

So, after further investigation, it appears to be something to do with only the DOCX extension????? 

Any ideas? I'm lost as to why that would be....

[MaxSverdlove · Accepted solution]

Found the fix... took me a long while... But this article got me to find the answer...

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat/windows-10-file-explorer-right-click-menu-option-quot-convert...

Went into Registry Editor

Went to: Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.docx

Default was not set to anything

Went to: Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.doc

Default was set to Word.Document.8

Went to: Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xlsx

Default was set to Excel.Sheet.12

Went to: Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xls

Default was set to Excel.Sheet.8

SO

I changed default for .docx to Word.Document.12

Immediately fixed the problem.

Hope this helps somebody in the future. My guess is the value was deleted during one of the Windows/Office updates....

[TanviRastogi]

Great to hear that your issue is resolved.

Cheers!

Thanks

Tanvi

[Tim24414303ryy8]

As MaxSverdlove said, this has to do with the values in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.  I was on remote sessions for 4 hours with Adobe and they could not resolve this.  Finally they said it has to do with 0365 not Adobe, so I startd researching.  In my case, I copied the values from a machine that was working, and had to set the Default value for xlsx to Excel.Sheet.12, xls to Excel.Sheet.8, docx to Word.Document.12 and doc to Word.Document.8.

I then ran the Adobe repair feature, and lo and behold, everything works.