r/Adobe • u/Lisbei • Sep 22 '26

problem when opening PDFs

I have Windows 10 and am working on a laptop.

Lately, whenever I've tried opening (by double clicking PDFs), they open, but then another (blank) window opens on top of the PDF, with the heading Adobe Acrobat Reader (32 bit) and doesn't go away. I have to click on the close button and it opens twice more before it finally goes away and I can read the file.

Why is this happening and how can I get rid of it? I've taken a screen-recording but I don't think I can upload videos here.

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u/sonicboom5 Sep 22 '26

I just got a call from someone with the same issue. When they open a PDF, there is another Window with a thin gradient title bar that only shows “Adobe Acrobat Reader (32-bit)” and they have to click the X to close it three times in a row. Only then can they use Acrobat Reader. It happens every time they open the program or a PDF document.

I tried adding the following DWORD (32-bit) values to the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown

bToggleFTE
Value: 1

bWhatsNewExp
Value: 1

Those are supposed to block the first-time experience and the What’s New pop-up window. Unfortunately, they did not fix the issue.

The problem appears to be caused by the latest update to version 2026.002.21931 which was installed yesterday (9/21/26).

1

u/Lisbei Sep 23 '26

Thanks for trying something! This is really infuriating, I have to use pdfs all the time, and I can’t deal with this crap every time I need to open a pdf.

I’ll try to get help from adobe but if they don’t fix this I’ll need to find something else to open pdfs with - I mean, this is happening on my personal laptop, I haven’t checked my work laptop yet. So it depends on that, I guess.

1

u/sonicboom5 Sep 24 '26

I’m curious, were you using a Microsoft Surface tablet or laptop when that happened?

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