Adobe PDF preview handler 64-bit fix

Preview handlers are lightweight components which let you view various file types within programs like Windows Explorer (in Windows Vista and Windows 7) and Outlook 2007. Adobe Reader comes with Adobe’s PDF preview handler but the installer has a mistake which means the preview handler does not work on 64-bit systems. It turns out the problem can be fixed via a simple registry change.

About the issue respectively about the fix

• The fix should only be applied to 64-bit versions of Windows that have Adobe Reader installed. Don’t apply the fix to 32-bit versions of Windows. If you’re not sure what you have use Start -> Control Panel -> System and Security -> System and look at the reported system type.
• You will need Administrator access to apply the fix.
• You may need to re-apply the fix if you update/re-install Adobe Reader, unless Adobe get around to fixing their installer.
• What the fix does is explicitly documented in Microsoft’s guidelines on Registering preview handlers so it shouldn’t cause any problems.

Installing the fix

Create a file called AdobePreviewHandler_x64Fix.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}]
"AppID"="{534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C}"

Copy/Paste the above lines into the .reg file and double-click it afterwards. This will correct the necessary values in the Windows registry. Please consider, a reboot is required for the changes to take effect.

Apply the fix using Regedit

• Open RegEdit.exe
• Navigate to:
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}
• There should be an existing AppID value, incorrectly set to {6d2b5079-2f0b-48dd-ab7f-97cec514d30b}
• Change the AppID value to {534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C}