Windows 10 Fatal Error: Acrobat failed to connect to a DDE server

[Cacadriil]

Today I could not open a pdf document by double-clicking on it in the Windows Explorer. Apparently nothing happened. Eventually, I right-clicked, and selected open with... Chrome. That worked. The default was Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Later I found, after closing the Explorer widow, three dialog windows underneath. The dialogs said "Fatal Error /  Acrobat Failed to connect to a DDE server."

When double checking while writing this post, I found that double-clicking a pdf document opens Edge -- and that works too. Right clicking, the context menu has "Open" at the top, and further down, "Open with ->" and Adobe Acrobat Reader DC at the top of the submenu.
I just tried the Adobe Acrobat Reader DC selection, and nothing i happening. I minimized all windows one by one to see if a dialog window would appear, but no.

Googling the error message turned up a suggestion to fix a registry enty, but that entry already had the suggested value: HKCR\acrobat\shell\open\ddeexec\application : Default : REG_SZ : AcroViewR10,

What kind of server is Acrobat trying to connect with ? What for? Is Acrobat connecting back to the Explorer window to get the file name?
With no information to go on, how can we troubleshoot this, other than the nuclear option: Reinstall everything?

Thanks

[MeenakshiNegi · Accepted solution]

Hi Cacadriil

Please refer the steps provided in this thread for similar issue: I have been getting the "acrobat fail to send a DDE command"

Check if this can help to resolve the issue.

Regards,

Meenakshi

[respi]

I spent some time with Adobe help online because it has only worked sporadically over the last 8 weeks. 

In the end I right clicked and chose Windows Compatibility help tool

This said that Acrobat Pro DC is incompatible with Windows 10 and to run as Windows 8.

This fixed it....finally!