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Adobe Acrobat Reader shows a Grey Screen after installing KB5074109 when utilising the WebBrowser component in Windows

Forum|Forum|9 days ago
January 28, 2026
9 replies
1620 views

Since installing KB5074109 the WebBrowser component can no longer load PDF’s within applications utilising Windows WebBrowser component.

Instead of displaying Adobe and the PDF in the browser a grey screen appears and the Adobe Acrobat Reader process is launched but appears to not do anything.

Users are using the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (2025.001.21111, although had a previous version when logged).

As a work around we currently disable the add-in in Internet Options which provides users with a popup to Open or Save the PDF instead.

I was monitoring threads

https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/issues-with-adobe-dc-reader-after-windows-11-update-kb5074109/td-p/15665887 and https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-discussions/pdf-documents-not-loading-after-june-8th-on-64-bit-web-browser-control-web-app/td-p/12121363 (Although 4 years old had responses this week which included one saying it was being investigated by developers) but it appears since yesterday the community site has changed and responses and threads have disappeared.

Is this still being investigated as we don’t have the issue with other PDF Readers.

Correct answer Anywen

After installing latest Windows Update (January 29, 2026—KB5074105 (OS Builds 26200.7705 and 26100.7705) Preview - Microsoft Support)
The issue seems to be fixed on one of my test computer.
I’ll try on more to confirm but this seems promising

AnandSri

Community Manager

Hi All,

This has already been reported to our team, and they are working to get a solution/workaround for the issue. As this is also dependent on MS, we have not received any confirmation yet.

I will update the thread if we receive any updates/solutions related to this.

Thanks to all for your patience and cooperation.

Regards,

Anand Sri.

askalka

Participating Frequently

Hi @AnandSri

this is the feedback i got from Microsoft today:

o far, however, I haven’t been able to find any confirmed or conclusive evidence.

If we don’t know which specific Windows API call used by Adobe’s code is failing—and how this failure prevents the control from rendering the PDF correctly within the client area—we cannot make a reliable statement about which changes introduced with KB5074109 ultimately caused Adobe’s code to fail and the control to stop rendering.

To recap: once the issue occurs, one or more Adobe.exe process instances remain running.
This could indicate a problem in Adobe’s ActiveX control, specifically its inability to perform the required inter‑process communication with one or more Adobe.exe instances.

As a result, the COM interfaces exposed by the control become unstable, which appears to be an additional side effect (or a separate issue) that should be reviewed by Adobe.

In short, based on the available technical details and observed behavior, Microsoft is not in a position to draw a reliable technical conclusion regarding either the root cause of the issue or which change may have resolved it without having investigate a details root cause analysis.

Niceouttoday

Participant

I noticed the post disappear as well. Very interesting, Microsoft released a 4’th January update lol… Jan 13, Jan 17, Jan 24 and now Jan 29. At least they are working on things. We’re going to try 5075105, thanks for posting.

AnywenCorrect answer

Participant

After installing latest Windows Update (January 29, 2026—KB5074105 (OS Builds 26200.7705 and 26100.7705) Preview - Microsoft Support)
The issue seems to be fixed on one of my test computer.
I’ll try on more to confirm but this seems promising

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Participating Frequently

That's weird, its just got the fix for the missing icon on the logon screen hasn’t it?

Anywen

Participant

Hello, weird for sure, changelog don’t seems to talk about this.
I’ve got 2 more computers (3 for now) with the patch applied, and reader is working in IE mode

sbomobc

Participant

I'm experiencing the same issue.

After installing Windows Update KB5074109 (January 2026), I can no longer display PDFs using Adobe Acrobat Reader in the WebBrowser control within a 64-bit .NET application.
The same issue does not occur with 32-bit .NET applications.

After uninstalling KB5074109, I was able to display PDFs again, so there's no doubt that KB5074109 was the cause.

I hope that Adobe and Microsoft will work together to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

platzac

Participant

same on Windows Server 2025 since KB5073379: users cannot view/print PDF under Internet Explorer 11 tabs, no problem under full Edge tabs.

before KB5073379 iexplore.exe was dated to the 27.03.2025, after iexplorer.exe date changed to 14.01.2026

uninstalling KB5073379 (resolve) the issue

chrissmithdatelgroupAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi,

We have tested and confirmed this for Server 2025 as well.

P

Phips-

Participating Frequently

Same issue here!

AnandSri

Community Manager

Hello @Noah_Tec and @Anywen

I hope you are doing well, and we’re sorry for the trouble you had.

The product team is still investigating the issue. We’ll share an update as soon as we get a workaround available.

Also, we recently migrated our community to a new platform; hence, you see the changes. Please note that all posts, replies, solutions, feature requests, and bug reports created on or before November 16 are already available. Content created between November 17 and launch day, January 27, will be added soon, no data will be lost, and you won’t need to recreate anything.

Thanks for your cooperation and patience.

Regards,

Anand Sri | Acrobat Community Team

P

Phips-

Participating Frequently

Hello @AnandSri

thanks for your update on this topic! 👍🏾

Can we track the issue somewhere?

BR

Noah_Tec

Participant

We are currently facing the same issue…..

Anywen

Participant

Hello, I can confirm we also have this issue on win11 24h2 computers with KB5074109 installed.
OOB update KB5077744 and KB5078127 don’t seems to fix the issue.
We’re currently using the same workaround of disabling add-in in internet options.