Adobe Reader DC: Hide or remove the toolbar permanently

When you start Adobe Reader DC to read a pdf file, left and right appear horizontal annoying stripes. The Navigation Pane and the Tools Pane.

If you want to hide them because they take up a lot of space in the window and make reading difficult, then things get a little confusing. The Navigation Pane, ie the left lane, is easy to close permanently, as long as you go from the Adobe Reader DC menu to:
View> Show / Hide> Navigation panes> Hide Navigation Pane or just press the F4 key.

But the right lane is extremely difficult to hide. Even if you minimize it the next time you open a new pdf it will be in front of you again. This feature of Adobe Reader DC seems rather strange but if you look in more detail you will find out why. This bar, while paradoxically, lists a number of useful features such as Protect and Optimize PDF, but is essentially a dashboard for upgrading to standard or Pro versions. In other words, Adobe is asking for money.

Of course, you can ignore it and as we said before you can minimize it. Although it only takes a click to get rid of it, the whole process gets tedious, especially if you deal with a lot of PDFs all the time.

There is an option in the program menu that allows you to permanently hide the Tools window, but it is not as obvious as in Navigation. Maybe on purpose. There is also a hack where the strip can disappear completely forever. Let's look at both ways.

PERMANENT HIDE OF THE TOOLS PANE
Adobe Reader DC was not first released with a setting that would permanently hide the Tools window, which is just ridiculous. Fortunately, an update released later (probably due to outcry from severely annoyed users) prompted Adobe to add an option to make it finally possible. Only it is not so easily detectable to locate it immediately. Let's go find her together:

Step 1: Hide the Tools window as usual.

NOTE: You must complete this step before proceeding below, that is, before you reach the preferences panel, as the option to enable only makes Adobe Reader DC remember the latest status of the Tools window, rather than hiding it permanently.

Step 2: Click Edit, then select Preference.

Step 3: Click on the side in Documents, then check the box next to the “Remember current state of Tools Pane” box.

Step 4: Click OK to save your changes.

You will no longer find the toolbar appear automatically when you open Adobe Reader DC each time. If for some reason it does not, repeat steps 2 to 4 and it will be done. Unknown why, it took us twice to catch the trick. Maybe for Adobe to make our lives difficult.

PERMANENT DISAPPEARANCE OF TOOLS PANE
Of course, when Adobe was forced to minimize its ads, it did not do so wholeheartedly. So make sure that even in the minimize mode it shows you a smaller bar with the icons of its functions visible.

The last thing you want is to accidentally click on that thin strip of pixels when te the line s, which is right next to her. Plus if you accidentally press it of the zoom strip, the main window partially hides or shrinks your document to make room for the strip, thus affecting your productivity.

Since the whole window consists mainly of paid upgrades, seriously consider getting rid of it altogether, to prevent it from bothering you with its presence. And for the few options that are really usable, such as Comment, PDF Export, etc., you can still access these features via the menu bar. So you have nothing to lose.

IMPORTANT: The following procedure requires modifying a file in the Adobe Reader DC directory. Therefore, exit the application before continuing.

Step 1: Open a file exploration window and go to the following path:

C:\Program Files(x86)\Adobe\ Reader DC\Reader\AcroApp\ENU

NOTE: Modify the path according to your computer files. For example, replace the "C" with the appropriate drive letter of the partition where the program is installed on your computer, etc.

Step 2: Right-click on the file named Viewer.aapp and then select Properties from it .

Step 3: Click the Security tab, and then click Edit.

Step 4: In the "Group or User Names" section, click Users, and then select the box next to "Full Control."

Click on Apply, and then click OK to save your changes. Do the same in the Properties dialog box.

Step 5: Make a backup copy of Viewer.aapp file in another on your hard drive. This will allow you to easily revert any changes, just in case you need the Tools window in the future.

Step 6: Once again, right-click on the file, but this time, select "Open with".

Step 7: In the popup that appears, select Notebook, and then click OK.

NOTE: If Notepad does not appear in the box, click More apps to display it.

Step 8: Highlight and delete the part of the text that starts with the label layouts and ends with the label / Layouts as shown in the screenshot below .

Step 9: Click File, and then click Save. Then exit the Notebook.

Start Adobe Reader DC and here it is! The "Tools" window should be gone forever. You will not even see it minimize. And the whole window is at your disposal for your document.

TIP: If you want to restore the Tools window, simply copy the deleted text or replace the modified Viewer.aapp file with the backup you made earlier.

Conclusion:
Good Adobe effort to get users to upgrade to a paid version. But for all doors there is always a key. What do you say?

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Written by Dimitris

Dimitris hates on Mondays .....

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