even though I'm not the most computer literate person, since I'm the youngest I often have my go at fixing small issues.
I just had to vent here and share hoping something could be made of this, also that this helps someone.
the problem: family member had adobe software installed, it came as part of their work years ago, except adobe quickly did a 180 and started asking for money.
they noticed on a regular basis adobe process running in the background using like 50 60% CPU for no reason. so they uninstalled everything except Acrobat.
now Acrobat started acting funny. whenever you open a PDF it opens a square window asking them to sign into their corporation (this sign in had stopped working a long time ago, can't sign in no matter what - and there is no "sign out" or dismiss "don't use an account" option). and even half the time when just selecting a file to preview it in windows, it freeezes the preview and shoots up a blank white version of the same square, but you can tell it's got "Adobe service something something" on the title.
it does this every single time.
the solution: so as you do I looked up the problem in google (as well as the ai solution that pops up which doesn't make sense and changes every single time you change the search words). found all kinds of solutions. none of them worked. you reinstall acrobat and it remembers everything, and shows the sign into corporation window again every time.
I made sure to go to Remove programs and remove Acrobat, as well as "Adobe services something" under it. reinstalled. nope still broken.
the final one I tried seemed like it would work. a special adobe cleanup tool from adobe's own site, it claims to fully remove everything if your adobe software somehow didn't fully install/uninstall. I did that. it asks that you restart the computer, and after remembering some comment I scrolled past that said "have a look in task manager for adobe process" sure enough after fully removing everything adobe and restarting the computer there is a process at the top "Adobe Acrobat Updater" doing something. you can't put out the flames.
I went to windows settings checked all areas for any trace of corporate account or adobe corporate account, nothing. nothing is linked to adobe. installed acrobat again, and it remembers everything. 2 hours and I couldn't change a thing. not only this, it's worse because on top of the "sign into corporate" window, I got a "Try Acrobat Pro for free" pop up when I opened a file.
and also yes there was a popular solution I found early on, go to preferences, and where it says account email (where it shows nothing since the beginning btw, it's just blank and the "sign out" button is blank you can't click it because no account is signed in), enter gibberish and the popup will go away. even if it used to no it doesn't work.
after 2 hours the problem still exists, and it got worse. can't fix it. I'm surprised if anyone except an IT expert can.
ALL I wanted to do was uninstall the broken Acrobat Reader (that keeps directing with popup to sign in to a corporation where user no longer has a sign in), and install the same free Acrobat Reader again, so that stupid thing doesn't popup every single time you open a file.
so here is my warning, I heard rumors on the internet about them being an evil company. it's true. if you ever installed adobe software on your computer, good luck getting rid of it and everything it remembers if it breaks itself. it's permanently on there and your only option is to setup or buy a new computer.
unless you have no other option, if you don't need it, DO NOT install ANY adobe softwares on your computer.
whine over.
Is there something in the windows registry?