Windows 10 acrobat reader process has no visible window

[James Miller]

Hi,

I recently installed windows 10 on a new machine. After installing acrobat and tcc I discovered running a reader from a tcc shell does not create a visible window. Running the same executable from a cmd shell does create a visible window. I used a process explorer's "Bring to Front" for the tcc process and got a "No visible windows found for this process" warning. Any ideas?

process explorer screen capture

TCC LE 14.00.9 x64 Windows 10 [Version 6.3.19042]
Copyright 2016 JP Software Inc. All Rights Reserved

 

[Joe Caverly]

If cmd works, use it to run acrobat reader from TCC LE 14.

I have TCC LE 14 x86 installed, but no Acrobat Reader, so here's an example using Notepad;

start /inv /pgm "cmd exe" /c notepad.exe

(removed . from cmd exe due to error from forum editor)

You did not say how you are launching Acrobat Reader from TCC LE 14.

If you were starting it from the command line as acrord32.exe (I think that is the name), maybe try;

start /pgm "acrord32.exe"

and see if the results are different.

This is not a fix for the issue, just a workaround.

Joe

 

[James Miller]

Thank you for the prompt response. Both workarounds are good ideas but unfortunately had the same result.

start using cmd

start using pgm option

 

[vefatica]

Hi,

I recently installed windows 10 on a new machine. After installing acrobat and tcc I discovered running a reader from a tcc shell does not create a visible window. Running the same executable from a cmd shell does create a visible window. I used a process explorer's "Bring to Front" for the tcc process and got a "No visible windows found for this process" warning. Any ideas?

process explorer screen capture

TCC LE 14.00.9 x64 Windows 10 [Version 6.3.19042]
Copyright 2016 JP Software Inc. All Rights Reserved

What was the command that you gave to TCC that resulted in Acrobat running without a window?

What was the command that you gave to CMD that resulted in Acrobat running with a window?

 

[James Miller]

Both commands for the TCC and CMD shell was just trying to run the executable:

e:\utils\win32\acrobat\reader\acrord32.exe

 

[Joe Caverly]

Try starting Acrobat from TCCLE using Explorer;

explorer.exe e:\utils\win32\acrobat\reader\acrord32.exe

If that does not work, try starting Acrobat from TCCLE via a .lnk (shortcut) file, for example, Acrord32.lnk

Joe

 

[Charles Dye]

What was the command that you gave to TCC that resulted in Acrobat running without a window?

What was the command that you gave to CMD that resulted in Acrobat running with a window?

These are good questions.

For whatever it's worth, I have no trouble running Acrobat from TCC/LE in Windows 10. I don't need START; just typing ACROBAT at the command line works. Acrobat is version 2023.001.20064; Windows is build 19041.1415.

 

[vefatica]

Both commands for the TCC and CMD shell was just trying to run the executable:

e:\utils\win32\acrobat\reader\acrord32.exe

Hmmm! When I do this

TCC LE  14.00.9 x64   Windows 10 [Version 6.3.19045]
Copyright 2016 JP Software Inc.  All Rights Reserved

v:\> "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"

I get this

PID 2656 was the one started by TCCLE and PID 9736 was started by 2656 and shows the user interface.

In your screen capture, the second ACRORD32 looks like it might be running embedded. I have no clue why.

 

[James Miller]

Hmmm! When I do this

TCC LE  14.00.9 x64   Windows 10 [Version 6.3.19045]
Copyright 2016 JP Software Inc.  All Rights Reserved

v:\> "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"

I get this

View attachment 3856

PID 2656 was the one started by TCCLE and PID 9736 was started by 2656 and shows the user interface.

In your screen capture, the second ACRORD32 looks like it might be running embedded. I have no clue why.

I would expect tcc would create a parent and child process like you see and what I see when I run from a cmd shell:

cmd shell parent properties

tcc shell parent properties

 

[vefatica]

In your recent pics, the parent acrord32 instance created by TCC is somehow "off-limits" to ProcessExplorer. Is there anything odd going on with respect to elevation?

 

[TEA-Time]

Note that Acrobat Reader v11 may be a bit old (2012 according to your Properties screenshot) for Windows 10, which is circa 2015, but has even become incompatible in some ways with its older self in more recent versions.

I have Acrobat Reader v11 on a Windows 7 machine, and simply running AcroRd32 without the .exe from the install folder via TCC LE throws an interesting message:

If I run it with AcroRd32.exe, or by entering a PDF filename, it starts normally. And it even does that in CMD. How odd...

 

[James Miller]

I found an interesting clue on my system:

A tcc shell displays a visible acrobat reader window when not run as administrator.

A tcc shell does not display a visible acrobat reader when run as administrator.

A cmd shell displays a visible acrobat reader window regardless of being run as administrator.

 

[James Miller]

Hi,

Are you able to reproduce this problem running as an administrator?
Does this issue justify as a bug?

Please let me know if you need anything ,

James

 

[TEA-Time]

I have no idea if it'll help, but why not use the most recent version of Adobe Reader?

 

[vefatica]

It works here with TCC LE 14 elevated or not.

Microsoft Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
10.0.19045.2728 (2009, 22H2)

 

[Charles Dye]

I have no problem starting Acrobat from TCC/LE, whether elevated or not. But I'm running a much later version of Acrobat than you are.

 

[James Miller]

Keeps getting more interesting. I originally started with the latest version of Acrobat's reader when I first encountered the problem. I tried a downgrade to Acrobat XI because I have another system with Acrobat XI installed where an elevated TCC 20.11.46 x64 on Windows 7 [Version 6.1.7601] displays a window just fine. Now I'm just baffled.

It must be something simple. Out of desperation I checked "Task View" to see if it's on a desktop I did not know about but that's not it.

I configured an alias and a .pdf executable extension to run acrobat on windows 10 with start /runas <user> <password>. I don't like having a plain text password in a configuration file but it is a workaround for now...