Adobe Not Responding after trying to open Preferences

[Jess280432462knd]

I want to remove the Protected View option which is driving me insane and which I accidentally activated a long time ago.

Everytime I try to follow the instructions and go to Preferences, Adobe just crashes and says "not responding." This happens whethere I have a file open or whether I just open Adobe.

Any ideas?

[kglad]

by "adobe" do you mean acrobat pro?

[Jess280432462knd]

Yes, Adobe pro

[SuJoshi]

@Jess280432462knd 
You can navigate to Edit, Preferences, and Security (Enhanced) and uncheck 'Enable Protected Mode at startup.'  

or from the registry entry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\Privileged
"bProtectedMode"=dword:00000000

[Jess280432462knd]

as i said in my original post, i know how to access the setting, but adobe just keeps crashing whenever i hit "preferences"

as for that registry entry - i cannot find it 😞 i guess im not software-saavy enough.

[kglad]

@Jess280432462knd 

remove your preference files, https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1595848?start=0&tstart=0

[Jess280432462knd]

ah, i was hopeful this would work but nope. thank you tho 🙂

i might just have to uninstall everything and download again.

[kglad · Accepted solution]

@Jess280432462knd 

sorry to hear that.  for a complete reinstall:

uninstall acrobat including preferences per https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/uninstall-remove-app.html

[Nikhil R Gupta · Accepted solution]

@Jess280432462knd You can also use the Acrobat cleaner tool after uninstalling and check if this helps.
Acrobat Cleaner 

[Jess280432462knd]

UPDATE: ended up uninstalling and downloading adobe pro again and it's fixed. thanks everyone for your helpful comments

[kglad]

good to hear!  (and you're welcome.)