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Friday, March 15, 2013

WinShell cannot start AcrobatReader XI

When I tried to launch Acrobat Reader from WinShell, I got the following error message:
Cannot start AcrobatReader or open the document.
1. Please check on the exe file and cmd line of the PDFView options.
2. Please set correct Adobe DDE Version in registry key 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\acrobat\shell\open\ddeexec\application'
Seems that the solution is quite straightforward:
  1. Make sure the Acrobat Reader is already running before calling it from WinShell (just run the Acrobat Reader from the start menu once, and keep it running).
  2. Edit the registry entry as mentioned in the error message. For example, in my case, I found that the value of my Acrobat Reader was set to AcroViewR10. Since I am using version 11, I have to change the value to AcroViewR11.
That's all :)

21 comments:

  1. Worked great for me. Thanks for posting.

    As a side note for those that may not know: To edit the registry click your start button and type "regedit" That's the program that will allow you to edit the registry. Then just follow the message down to the value and double click to edit.

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  2. worked for me as well.

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  3. Perfect :-) Thank you

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  4. Adobe Reader 11.0.7 and Acrobat 11.0.7 fail to load the PDF. Start either and it will load. So I tried the registry edit and it does not work for either. Winshell is version 3.3.2.6. This is on a Windows 7 64-bit OS with SP1 and fully patched. MikTex 2.9 64-bit fully patched.

    Any ideas?

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    1. So after a lot of fiddling, I found that change the program call inside of Winshell Options to point directly to Adobe Reader or Acrobat fixed the problem. I guess the problem is the 64-bit OS and the 32-bit programs living in C:\Program Files (x86).

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  5. Changing the registry worked for me. Opening AcrobatReader before calling it from WinShell did not.

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  6. hello,
    I had this problem in the past, but the solution suggested was working....Now I got again the problem and the solution it doesn't work anymore,
    Can someone help me?

    Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Hello, unfortunately I no longer use Winshell to work with tex files. Perhaps anyone can help? In Windows, I am now using TeXLive (https://www.tug.org/texlive/) as it is simple to setup and use.

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  7. Change in registry works! Thank you!

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  8. Valuable and useful information...Thanks!
    Software Crack

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  9. I am using Adobe Acrobat reader DC, version 2015. I still have the same problem even after effecting the suggested changes, Please help

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  10. On Acrobat DC there seem to be two problems: One is that DC displays "Recent Files" home screen on startup, and it cannot be turned off. On Reader X and XI it could be turned off with a registry edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\11.0\FeatureLockDown\cWelcomeScreen and set it bShowWelcome Screen=0

    The other problem is that I don't know what value to assign to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\acrobat\shell\open\ddeexec\application key in registry. AcroView10 and AcroView11 were the values for versions X and XI respectively. AcroViewDC does not work in the present case. If anyone knows this, I would appreciate help. I will try to figure it out, but I can't spend much time on it.

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  11. Ok, just figured this out.

    The DDE server is acroviewR15. So, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\acrobat\shell\open\ddeexec\application and set it to "AcroViewR15".

    And "Recent Files" are not a problem.

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  12. AcroViewR15 works thank you

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    Replies
    1. AcroViewR15 works for me too. Thank You!

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