After upgrading to Acrobat Reader 9, Acrobat.com AIR window opens when Windows starts

Issue

After you upgrade to Adobe Reader 9, the Acrobat.com AIR explorer window opens when Windows starts up.

Reason

You are using Windows XP or Vista, and you just upgraded from Adobe Reader 7.x or 8.x, or Acrobat Professional 7.x, or 8.x.

Solution

Solution 1: Disable items from your startup group using the System Configuration Utility.

  1. Choose Start > Run (or for Vista you can use the Start Search box).
  2. Type msconfig and press Enter.
  3. In the System Configuration Utility, click the Startup tab.
  4. Uncheck the "AdobeUpdateManager".

    Note: In the "command" column, it will display "....\program files\adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\AdobeUpdateManager.exe" AcRdB7_0_5 -reboot 1

Solution 2: Add Quotes to unquoted path(s) in the Registry.

  1. Choose Start > Run (or for Vista you can use the Start Search box).
  2. Type regedit and press Enter.
  3. Navigate to the following registry key locations, and add quotes to the file path:

    Example:

    Original key -

    C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\AdobeUpdateManager.exe AcRdB7_0_5 -reboot 1

    Will become -

    "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Reader\AdobeUpdateManager.exe" AcRdB7_0_5 -reboot 1

Known Keys that may cause this issue:

Key/Value

Acrobat/Reader Version

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\updateMgr

Acrobat Reader 7.x

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\Adobe Acrobat Synchronizer

Acrobat 8.1 (After using Shared Review or adding RSS Subscriptions)

Solution 3: Uninstall the Acrobat.com AIR Application.

  1. Choose Start > Settings > Control Panels > Add/Remove Programs.
  2. Click Acrobat.com.
  3. Click Remove/Uninstall and follow the on-screen steps to complete the uninstallation.

Solution 4: Delete the AIR application folder.

  1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Adobe\.
  2. Locate the Acrobat.com folder.
  3. Delete the Acrobat.com folder.

    Note: This step will not impact your Reader install. If later, you'd like to reinstall the Acrobat.com AIR application, then you can download it from Adobe.com to regain that functionality with Acrobat.com.

Get help faster and easier

New user?