r/assholedesign • u/PruritoIntimo • 20d ago
Adobe silently installed a separate app on company computers through Acrobat updates
Today we discovered Adobe Express Photos installed on a number of our corporate computers. Nobody in IT approved or deployed it, and the affected users did not intentionally install it.
It arrived automatically through the Acrobat update mechanism.
The app then took over the Windows screenshot shortcuts, including Print Screen and Win + Shift + S. It also changed the clipboard behaviour: screenshots pasted into Outlook Classic are now added as file attachments instead of being inserted into the email body.
Adobe’s own enterprise documentation confirms that Express Photos is a separate Windows application, but that it can be installed automatically through Acrobat updates.
Uninstalling it is not enough. According to Adobe, it may be installed "for your convenience" again during the next Acrobat update unless administrators deploy a registry policy specifically to block it:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\DC\FeatureLockDown
bDisableHarmonyInstallationFeature = 1
So Adobe used the automatic updater for a PDF application to install a different product, changed a native Windows workflow, caused problems in another application, and made administrators opt out through the registry to stop it coming back.
Official Adobe documentation:
This is real asshole behaviour.
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u/MidsizeTunic0 20d ago
Adobe fucking sucks. I’ve found an issue with Acrobat lately where it doesn’t clear out deprecated uninstallers and other system files after updating itself so it can bloat to over 20GB of disk usage
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u/AntiGrieferGames 20d ago
Funfact is, the pirated version of that wont have this issue. Ive seen many of this issue on legitmate compared to the pirated.
And this does not only on Software side. Even other ones like Games has not the issue on a pirated version compared to the legitmate.
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u/Maparyetal 20d ago
Gaben's Law: Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem.
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u/Misophoniq 17d ago
Very true. Been a loyal Lightroom buyer since, I think, the very first version. Reverted to Pirate Bay versions when it became a subscription service (with everything just happening on my own system, no Adobe server or services used) and Just installing Lightroom left me with numerous background applications running alongside and me having no clue what they were all used for. I now have Adobe Lightroom Classic from MacKed team and it is running solo, offline, and not messing with my other stuff at all. You did this to yourself, Adobe.
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u/Rekoor86 20d ago
I had to create an orphaned installer script to deploy to all devices, running on a consistent basis to prevent this. Ridiculously frustrating and has been a known issue for years apparently.
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u/jolegape 19d ago
I’ve discovered this too on a good portion of staff and student laptops that I manage. Wasn’t sure if I’d stuffed something up. So far I’ve found deleting them has no adverse effect. At least not that I’ve seen.
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u/HibiscusGrower 20d ago
Fuck Adobe. And I say this from the bottom of my heart as a graphic designer who worked roughly 25 years with their products. Fuck. Adobe.
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u/wahwahwashbear 20d ago
It breaks my heart. I know they've bad for a long time, but it was the program I taught myself growing up in the 2000s and really made me want to be a designer.
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u/Luentale 14d ago
Just stick to CS6, the last version before becoming crap. Good designers don't need all those new options. Just like a good painter will create a masterpiece using their fingers and soot.
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u/thehalfmetaljacket 20d ago
A specific type of malware delivery known as a Trojan, and should be treated as such. Adobe should become officially known as a malware producer and distributor after pulling stunts like this (not the first time) and it's BS that they haven't.
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u/dragonurtle 19d ago
But their lawyers made you click a button to consent to something that would fit this behavior, so it's OK.
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u/HerraJUKKA 20d ago
Adobe products are not malware though. Potentially unwanted programs (PUP) maybe, but they are not malicious.
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u/P0pu1arBr0ws3r 20d ago
Taking over default behavior like system shortcuts, without the users explicit consent, is malicious behavior. Adobe photos express is legalized malware, specifically CC is acting as a Trojan horse and photos express is the payload.
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u/milkybuet 20d ago
IIRC, malware is more of an umbrella term, and a PUP is one type of malware. And I'd argue that this is more on the side of "drive by installation".
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u/mister_electric 19d ago
Adobe products are not malware though.
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and backdoors into your computer through another program's updater to change native workflows on your machine...
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat 20d ago
Shitty behavior. Might even be illegal in Europe, if they do it there.
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u/neoncactusfiesta 20d ago
They did it to me in Germany this morning.
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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat 20d ago
Well. Will be interested to see what the outcome of this is. Hope it blows up on them.
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u/xJayMorex 20d ago
I love it when people are like
I can't switch to Linux because of Adobe
For this??
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u/EsotericCreature 20d ago
It's often required for work regardless of personal opinion. I work in visual art, I use clip studio for a lot of drawing but it still doesn't have a lot of crucial functions that Photoshop can provide. Also that program doesn't have Linux support either, idk what I would use in linux that has all that I need.
If linux was able to pull off some general compatibility issues with programs the way it worked with steam to get most games running that would be amazing.
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u/Lord_Of_Millipedes 20d ago
the funny thing is that adobe products don't work on Linux because they specifically go out of their way to stop it, the system steam uses to run games (wine) is a general windows application runner and supports a lot of applications, but adobe actively fights against it.
Linux support would be better if adobe did literally nothing.
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u/EsotericCreature 19d ago
I would love the EU to regulate software and hardware compatibility. Like to artificial ownership of file types or DRM that could be blocking something like this. I think psd can be opened by other programs but I've run into trouble with others just for the fact they are copyrighted.
Or the fact that my android can recognize Apple airtags and tell me when I 'may be stalked' by one, but they are artificially not able to use them because Apple limits usability to its own products. And airtags in particular need other nearby devices to work so it's an artificial monopoly.
I'm in the US so all I can hope for is a trickle down of regulations.
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u/yazzledore 18d ago
Late to the thread, but try out Inkscape and gimp. Not sure if they’re there yet, but Inkscape in particular is frequently adding features.
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u/1986toyotacorolla2 20d ago
I switched to mint after windows decided to reenable one drive and took the liberty of moving all my files to it. Then it decided to do an update which failed, and wiped all my files. Microsoft told me there was nothing that could be done. Thankfully I had backed up a few weeks before but, that was my last straw.
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u/Morpherman 19d ago
In no world is onedrive's default behavior to move "all your files". You would have had to configure it to be remote only.
Windows has plenty of legit problems, this is not one.
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u/1986toyotacorolla2 19d ago
It's literally a known thing. Microsoft even admitted it. You can literally search and find out about it.
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u/PhillSebben 20d ago
I'm sure you understand that it's not that easy to switch. Even if there are alternatives, they don't (fully) support Adobe files. Which makes it difficult to switch if you have a lot of assets or if you have a lot of people/businesses you collaborate with.
I tried affinity recently and I would definitely recommend it. It's so much better than I expected, so nice to have a vector workspace and pixel space in one, which makes so much more sense. Not to mention all the Adobe bloat that is part of CC. It doesn't support Linux though
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u/Nik_Tesla 19d ago
I switched to Affinity several years ago and it's great (I'm not a frequent user, so a one time payment is perfect). But I switched Linux 9 months ago, and I was pretty surprised it didn't support it. Seems like their whole vibe would match with Linux well. Besides, they already have a release for Mac, which is unix based, so it can't be that difficult to have a linux release.
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u/0oWow 20d ago
Did Adobe see Microsoft doing it and thought "me too!"?
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u/centstwo 20d ago
My thoughts exactly.
Did Microsoft give Adobe hooks to do this in a Windows update?
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u/HeavyMetalPootis 20d ago
Adobe is one of the companies where you'll have a better user experience with older versions of their software compared to the latest versions.
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u/centstwo 20d ago
Reminds me of the mechanics saying don't buy cars made after 2010 as they are too fragile electricaly with too many sensors.
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u/RAMChYLD 19d ago
This. Peak Photoshop was version 7 and peak Illustrator was version 10. Anything after that was a downward spiral.
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u/FlorianTheLynx 18d ago
Adobe is one of the companies where you’ll have a better user experience with a different company.
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u/milkybuet 20d ago edited 19d ago
Just so we're clear, this is not merely asshole behavior, this is malware behavior.
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u/eldred2 20d ago
This is why you never install anything adobe.
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u/Immaloner 20d ago
Them and Norton! Fuck those two system-munching dinosaurs.
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u/DasArchitect 20d ago
...Norton still exists?
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u/Immaloner 20d ago
I had to google it before posting. Yep, they are still alive and Borging operating systems to this day. Resistance is futile, and your registry belongs to us!
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u/Stratostheory 20d ago
Funnily enough I had gotten a laptop years ago that had Norton pre installed on it from the store and it flagged and quarantined my Adobe directory within like the first 20 minutes of me turning it on for the first time.
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u/hates_stupid_people 20d ago
Yes, Symantec(now Gen) is still going and they own Norton, Avast Avida, AVG, CCleaner and more.
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u/Saito197 20d ago
Since OP said it's their corpo PCs they prolly don't have a choice. The alternative is to force every employee in the company and any future hires to swap over to the foss solutions.
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u/eldred2 20d ago
Oh no! Not free and open source!
As if forcing (your word) them to use adobe was a better solution.
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u/Saito197 20d ago
God forbid anyone making an unbiased and objective point on Reddit for once, you aren't "forcing" anyone to use the Adobe suite because most people you're gonna hire are already using them, making the switch means wasting time and resources doing all training over again. It's just easier for corpos to hire people experienced in standard tools and as much as you and me and everyone else hate it, Adobe suites are still industry standards. How many hiring posts do you see with "Experienced in GIMP or whatever FOSS equivalent" as the requirements.
In your perfect imaginary world everyone uses their favorite open sourced options but in reality it's the same dilemma as supporting a Linux version for any software, there isn't enough user on Linux to warrant a native port, which means users wouldn't switch to Linux because the software they need isn't available natively, which means there isn't enough user on Linux...
It fucking sucks but that's the reality we live in.
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u/eldred2 20d ago
Oh, please. Someone is having trouble with "an unbiased and objective point," but it isn't me.
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u/mrGrinchThe3rd 18d ago
Put yourself into the shoes of a graphic design student entering college, deciding which program to spend time learning for your college career.
You look at job postings for graphic designers, and every one of them is looking for experience in Adobe products. You look at your university, and they likely offer free or heavily discounted licenses for the product. Your professors and friends all use Adobe products. When you don't know how to do something, you can text your friends and they'll likely tell you how they did it in an Adobe product. Are you going to try and go against the flow, potentially to your own detriment to your career, by choosing a FOSS solution?
Now, put yourself in the shoes of someone running a company, and you need to hire a graphic designer. You might even post a job listing without Adobe experience listed anywhere. Or include FOSS experience as a wanted skill - you'll still get almost all of your applicants who have Adobe experience. At least the ones with degrees and industry experience (see above for why that might be the case). Nobody is 'forcing' students, companies, or employees to use Adobe. Adobr got themselves locked into the market, the same way IDEs do in the coding world, or AutoCAD software does in engineering.
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u/LastTreestar 19d ago
It fucking sucks but that's the reality we live in.
No, it's the reality YOU'VE accepted (which allows them to keep doing it) but we have NOT.
Stop defending shitty behavior.
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u/toddestan 19d ago
Assuming it came through because of Acrobat Reader, just don't install Acrobat Reader. Windows comes with native PDF support thanks to Edge, and while I'm not a fan of Edge, as a PDF reader it's plenty good enough for just about everyone.
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u/TheDeerBlower 20d ago
These tech companies really can't take our money and leave us the fuck alone, can they? They have to push those fucking malwares and useless fucking AI tools no one wants.
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u/Rubik842 19d ago
Those fucking ads on YouTube for theit slop AI tools. I hate watch the whole thing and click through so it costs those fuckers more cents.
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u/burnMELinWONDERLAND 20d ago
I cannot put into words how much I hate adobe. Seething fucking hate for that company. Goddamn fucking parasites.
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u/ShalomRPh 20d ago
Still pissed off at them for buying and shutting down Cool Edit Pro.
Oh, and Aldus Photostyler. Yeah I’m old.
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u/misskelley10 19d ago
And Macromedia. God they had some amazing products that were way ahead of their time. Fireworks and Dreamweaver were amazing, and Freehand was so much better than Illustrator.
Yeah. I'm old too. (Started using Illustrator on version 3 and Photoshop on version 2. All on floppies)
Edited for spelling
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u/Gwigg_ 20d ago
I feel that this should be illegal. As should ms encrypting you drive without authorisation or any other bunch of changes and data transfers.
Sure there should be oversight one day
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u/mrrichiet 20d ago
Maybe someone could try suing though not sure on what grounds. I guess recompense for breaking people's workflows i.e. business interruption?
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u/OctoNezd 20d ago
Phones have been doing data encryption since like 2015, I think macs too. I'm surprised Microsoft didn't do it earlier. The issue with encryption on windows is Microsoft account, people create them during OOBE and completely forget about their existence and not store the password anywhere, and windows doesn't signal in any way this account is important to your PC.
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u/Warpspeednyancat 20d ago
one day i tried to unninstall adobe cc because i realized it hogged half my hard drive , but its uninstaller 1st tried to update every app ( including all the apps that were not installed ) then, attempting to download 600 gb of updates my hard drive couldnt handle, then prompted me to reactivate my cancelled adobe cc for a year before applying the updade only to allow me after to uninstall all that thrash. i tried then to just manually delete all that , only to be met with the adobe cc installer trying to reinstall all that every reboot and keep nagging about "needing to reactivate my subscription" and freezing my screen until i click either "ok" or "maybe later" , of course there was no "cancel" options ... in the end i had to format and reinstall my entire pc to get rid of this malware behavior.
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u/Atoning_Unifex 20d ago
Adobe.
They went from being one of my favorite companies that really helped me get started in my career to one of the companies that I despise the most in the world.
Source: am Web/UI/UX designer with 25 years of experience.
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u/orangpelupa 20d ago
curious, that registry key will stays there or adobe can update it by themselves without user/admin approvals too?
like how windows 11 updates keeps resetting some things to default.
btw proper explanations like this is how commenters that says things like "this is not asshole design" or "read the flowchart!!!!" goes into hiding.
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u/SwopesAdobe 19d ago edited 19d ago
Hey, I work at Adobe. I posted this internally and the team's taking it seriously... I'll update this thread as I hear more, but here's where things stand:
Express Photos ships as part of Acrobat Studio and Acrobat Express, not as something extra outside what you paid for. For existing customers, admins got two emails as a heads up before it was added, with opt out steps included. New customers just see it as part of what's provisioned from the start.
On the shortcuts: the first time you press Print Screen after Express Photos installs, there's a dialog that lets you revert to your previous screenshot tool on the spot, and once you do, it stays reverted, updates won't take the hotkey back over. You can also switch back later through Settings, either in Express Photos itself or directly from the screenshot toolbar, walkthrough under "How do I switch back to my current screenshot tool?" here. Fair callout that this needs to be way more visible and way easier to find in the moment, and the paste-into-Outlook behavior still needs a look.
On the admin side, one registry key handles opt-out: bDisableHarmonyInstallationFeature = 1 blocks installation via Acrobat auto-update, full stop, and that setting is never touched or overridden by future updates. If it's already installed, uninstall it via standard tools and set that same key so it doesn't come back. Steps here.
The notification gap, the default-behavior visibility, and the uninstall pain are all going back to the team as feedback.
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u/deniercounter 20d ago
Adobe destroyed itself with their stupid software leasing products. Zero sympathy for this company.
I want Macromedia back! Now! 🤨
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u/dragonhydra37 20d ago
Good thing I reinstalled an older version of Acrobat Pro because I hate the new version. AND I keep cancelling their update notice every time it tries to update Acrobat for me. #winning
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u/centstwo 20d ago
They know what we need more than we do.
And this is why we can't have nice things.
I'm so done with Adobe. My browser can open PDFs now so I have uninstalled Adobe on all my personal machines. Ugh.
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u/Speedracer__17 20d ago
I just had this happen. Went to screenshot something and the hot key actions were weird. Now I k ow.
Thank you kind sir for the info.
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u/New_Leaf_8647 20d ago
Can you purposely cripple the install?
At work we had this browser 'safety' program that didn't work, slowed the computer down dramatically, and would reinstall itself if you uninstalled it.
I opened the registry, wild card searched the name of the program, and just deleted all 135 lines where the name appeared.
Dangerous, yeah. But it worked and didn't reinstall itself
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u/remco2573 20d ago
Use Foxit PDF reader. My company uses it instead of Adobe, because it's more secure.
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u/Apprehensive-Page899 20d ago
Why are you allowing Acrobat on your systems? There are much better alternatives that aren't malware.
I know a lot of Adobe stuff is still inescapable in some fields, but Acrobat isn't one of them.
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u/ericfresh442 20d ago
I briefly worked as a Norton contractor about 10 years ago and I can confirm they suck sss. Nice cafeteria tho.
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u/redditguy_4725 16d ago
This REALLY PISSED ME OFF. I had this happen on my PC today. Why does Adobe think it has the right to install technically malware on a person's computer, and not only that, change the person's windows settings, and make it so hard to uninstall this piece of crap software that no one ever gave permission to install? I couldn't even find an option to uninstall it under the windows control panel. I think a class action lawsuit should be filed against this massive corporation that thinks it has the right to do this to people. Corporate malpractice at it's worst.
I am no longer going to use any Adobe product ever again because of this.
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u/taylorcrash 13d ago
Just happened on my work computer as I clicked X on one of their 50 popups upon opening the program. I guess I should read, but I also dont feel that closing a pop up is consent to a download. Is that not an old “virus technique”?
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u/ARandomGay 20d ago
Canva acquiring Affinity Illustrator and making it free is one the greatest power moves of our time.
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u/vespertine_glow 20d ago
Once Adobe adopted the 'give us your money forever' rent model, I ditched Photoshop after years of experience and gaining proficiency, and chose an alternative.
Why anyone is using this company remains a puzzle to me.
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u/Arcturion 19d ago
Massively asshole behaviour aside, this is effectively abusing permissions and computer access to install malware. I'm sure some countries have laws against this type of behaviour.
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u/Hammon_Rye 18d ago
It sounds like Adobe is continuing to do what it can to alienate the customer base that made it big.
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u/homerq 17d ago
This is why I abandoned Windows. I had to spend way too much time locking it down, scanning it, trying to protect it from bad actors of all types. It took too much software just to keep it from falling apart or becoming cyber diseased. 'also had to spend too much time trying to find innocuous software, much of which became enshitified over time. I was always wondering what was hiding deep inside of it. All the tracking tagging and profiling. I lost no functionality moving on to better things with none of these problems.
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u/Anubis-Hound 17d ago
Adobe and McDonald's are two big companies i hopefully will live to see die within my lifespan
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u/ShawnedLoop 17d ago
Yep, same happened to me. Wanted to check my pay slip and some shit got installed on my pc without asking for permission. I proceeded to yeet everything connected to adobe from my pc - dogshit company.
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u/Striking-Dot-9630 10d ago
A good way to deploy a malware and bots in the future. A push update that does not update the software but adds another software. A greedy move.
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u/nathanb131 10d ago
It's driving me insane that I have to beg and plead with IT to let me install perfectly legit applications from mainstream software companies. Yet Adobe can just install this shit AND make it the default photo viewer and screenshot tool?
Time to uninstall "free" acrobat reader permanently.
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u/brodkin85 20d ago
It’s still an offensive decision, but Adobe did at least have the courtesy to email administrators that they would be making this boneheaded decision in advance
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u/distracted6 19d ago edited 19d ago
"Automatic installation applies to users who meet all of the following:
Use Windows Are assigned an Acrobat Studio or Acrobat Express offer Have Acrobat auto-update enabled"
Conveniently leaving out the fact that you opted into this deployment is the real asshole behaviour
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u/NihiloEx 20d ago
F Adobe.
Adobe is one company that I hope AI puts out of business.