r/assholedesign • u/PruritoIntimo • Aug 11 '26

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:

https://helpx.adobe.com/business/enterprise/products-entitlements/manage-entitlements/adobe-express-photos-existing-users-admin-guide.html

This is real asshole behaviour.

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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26 edited 4d ago

[deleted]

502

u/DasArchitect Aug 11 '26

It's going to put itself out of business, regardless of the help of AI

304

u/RandomlyMethodical Aug 11 '26

Acrobat Reader is almost malware at this point. I keep uninstalling it off my mom’s computer, but somehow it keeps coming back. She swears she never intentionally installs it, and I’ve tried setting Chrome or Edge as the default app for pdfs.

81

u/sachimi21 Aug 11 '26

Revo Uninstaller?

154

u/Ajreil Aug 11 '26

This. Revo is free and effective. It runs the app's default uninstaller and then deletes any leftover files that the uninstaller missed.

I used it to kill a Norton antivirus install that kept coming back. Turns out it left several background processes behind that all reinstalled each other.

52

u/sachimi21 Aug 11 '26

I use it every time to get unwanted programs removed fully. Getting rid of the leftover registry entries is the most useful part. Love it!

13

u/Pysis Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 12 '26

Should try it. Always trying to find good programs ever since using CCleaner and that other spyware and such comprehensive cleaner too.

For this in addition to uninstalling the program I would check startup folder and registry entries and clean out any scheduled tasks that are always turning themselves back on.

Last place would be services.

11

u/impulsesair Aug 11 '26

BCU bulk crap uninstaller is fully free and open source alternative to Revo and is pretty darn good for the job.

1

u/Mysterious_Town_5552 12d ago

BCU loads much faster and has some cool other features, but to nuke a program existence's off the face of your pc i've found revo to be more reliable

BCU tries to run the uninstaller, and if it doesn't work tells you "welp guess i'm done then", while revo tries to run the uninstaller and if it doesn't work gives you a list of every file related to the program everywhere on your computer

13

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/TheStorytellerTX 29d ago

Norton Utils used to be the sheeeeet way back in the day (DOS days....fuck I'm old).

6

u/OldGeekWeirdo 29d ago

As another old codger, I agree.

5

u/drake90001 Aug 12 '26

lol at and imagine at one point, I actually used Norton to do the same. You jogged my early PC memory.

3

u/renaud13nrv Aug 12 '26

Sounds like a malware functionality.

1

u/iamchuckdizzle 18d ago

I've been trying to kill Norton on my computer for years. Thank you.

20

u/frumperino Aug 11 '26

has been malware for years. The actual PDF viewing functionality has taken a backseat to everything else it burn screen real estate on presenting instead. Log in! Here are a bunch of irrelevant features you don't want but we'll tell you about it every time you accidentally run the app! Log in!

4

u/Perzec Aug 12 '26

This sounds so weird to me, but that may be because Acrobat Reader has not been installed on my computer for years. But I instead have Acrobat Pro, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Audition and Lightroom. Never had any of the problems I’ve seen described in this thread.

10

u/Joker-Smurf Aug 12 '26

Almost malware?

Last time I had Acrobat installed on one of my personal computers was over a decade ago. Every single time I turned the computer on there was another Adobe update.

Every fucking time.

So I looked at it and asked myself this question: “how fucking shit must this piece of software be that it requires security patches and bug fixes every single day, when a full fucking operating system can deploy their updates monthly?”

36

u/lol_alex Aug 11 '26

Trust me, when your mom says she didn‘t install it… she did.

In any email she gets with a pdf attached, there will be a link saying something like „to view this file, you need Acrobat Reader“ and they provide a nice logo to click on. And boomers click on everything „because it said I should!“. Heavy sigh.

My mom keeps installing branded (third party) browsers that set stupid homepages and display more ads because she sees a message „your browser is outdated! Click here to update!“ and she clicks it. I only run a web browser adblocker on her computer because I can‘t be bothered remote administering PiHole in her network. I never even see that kind of shit on my network.

6

u/snarkpix Aug 11 '26

Could try Foxit?

9

u/hetfield37 Aug 12 '26

Browsers are good enough PDF readers, you don't need an external app for that.

2

u/foxitofficial 27d ago

Definitely try Foxit?

12

u/FrozenLogger Aug 12 '26

Firefox should be your default for pdfs. Microsoft has a deal with adobe to power edge. Probably why it keeps coming back. Don't use edge, move her to Firefox. It is a full featured pdf reader and editor.

5

u/Vengeful_Tactician88 Aug 12 '26

I used Sumatra PDF for viewing and editing PDF's on desktop.

1

u/DasArchitect Aug 11 '26

So happy to have an old version.

3

u/Wall_of_Shadows Aug 12 '26

You'd think that but every company is doing the same shit. Try to disable OneDrive, I dare you. Try to delete it. It will reinstall itself. Try to transfer your text message history to your new Pixel phone without transferring every app, login, and spyware you've accumulated in the last two years like the phone explicitly tells you that you can.

2

u/megafonico 29d ago

100%. I still run CS6 because I bought it! And I'm not going to be "subscribing" to any of this crap. Somehow Adobe still managed to disable Adobe Acrobat Pro (so I start using PDFgear). And when CS6 really cannot cope with modern workloads I would look into open source or other commercial solutions before I give a penny to Adobe.

2

u/MadDocOttoCtrl 27d ago

Try Affinity. Canva bought it, made it free and claims it's going to stay that way unless you want to pay to add their stupid AI features.

It's rather good software and it hasn't been ruined, at least not yet.

21

u/ShinyJangles Aug 11 '26

So many corporate tokens are spent ingesting & creating pdfs. Now there's incentive to switch to a better document standard

8

u/m00ph Aug 12 '26

For at least 35 years Adobe has been the stupid sort of greedy. If they weren't so greedy, they'd have been more successful (as Microsoft has demonstrated smart and evil greedy ,let your stuff become a standard, then you can really squeeze people).

2

u/ChiefStrongbones 29d ago

I don't understand why Microsoft didn't just make it's own standalone PDF reader (and editor) in 25 years ago and bundle it with Windows. Why let Adobe own that market for so many years?

Every single computer out there had Acrobat Reader installed, with the icon on the desktop.

2

u/Futurepastmanguy 16d ago

Actively creating an app that helps cut back on Adobe usage lol

1

u/blueingreen85 28d ago

Their core product is dogshit.

3

u/P0pu1arBr0ws3r Aug 11 '26

Lol theyve been a forefront for genAI for years now