In some scenarios, the cleaner tool for Windows might affect some preferences common between Acrobat and Reader. It can only be used for standalone versions of Acrobat and Reader. The tool cannot be used with any Creative Cloud products or Acrobat delivered with CS products. The tool provides options for removing problematic Acrobat items only while leaving Reader untouched and vice versa. The cleaner tool fixes such issues by cleaning up corrupted installations, removing or fixing corrupted files, removing or changing permissions registry entries, etc.

This is particularly problematic when permissions set on plist entries or files prevent the successful installation of new installs and/or updates. While most installs, uninstalls, and updates operations happen without incident, there are cases where a user may not be able to complete such tasks due to some registry or file conflict on the machine. The Adobe Reader and Acrobat Cleaner Tool removes a standalone installation of Reader or Acrobat, including any leftover preferences and settings remaining after a standard program uninstall.

Always uninstall DC products via standard, supported methods. Adobe provides the utility as a least resort to repair machines after a failed or partial uninstall. The AcroCleaner is not an uninstaller and should NOT be used as such.