How to use Group Policy to fix Adobe Reader PDF Preview in Windows 64bit

Leo Davidson recently posted a fix for Adobe Reader integration on 64bit Windows. His fix resolves the thumbnail and file preview feature when you install Adobe Reader (which is still only available in 32bit) in 64bit Windows which Adobe have not seemed to work out for over 3 years now. On his site he has tool that you can download to manually apply the PDF fix. The file preview is just a simple registry key change so I have added some more instruction showing how to makes these changes using Group Policy Preferences.
Update: Thanks to the feedback from Leo Davidson I have updated the instructions to only “Update” the value if it already exists.
Update2: Reduced the complexity to check for a 64bit OS.

Preview View

Method 1: File Preview Fix – Step by Step – Hard

Note: Before you do method 1 be sure to check out the much easier method 2
Step 1. Open Group Policy Management Console
Step 2. Edit a machine based Group Policy Object (GPO)
Step 3. Go to Computer Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry
Step 4. Click on the “Actions Menu” > “New” > “Registry Item” then select the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Hive type SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193} in the “Key Path” then type AppID in the Value Name field and {534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C} in the “Value Data” field.

Now we are going to filter the Group Policy Preference setting so that we only apply the registry key fix to 64bit Operating Systems.
Step 5.  Click on the “Common” Tab then tick “Item-level targeting” and click the “Targeting” button.

Step 6. Click the “New Item” then click “Registry Match” chose the “Key exists” match Type and then change the Hive to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” then type “Software\Wow6432Node” in the “Key path”

Step 7. Click the “New Item” then click “Registry Match” again change the “Match Type” is “Value Exists” change the “Hive” to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” and the “Key Path” to “SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}” set the “Values Name” to “AppID” change the Value Type to “REG_SZ” and then click “OK” then “OK”

Step 8. Right click the registry entry you just made and click on “Copy”

Step 9. Then right click in the blank area and click “Paste”

Step 10. Click “Yes” to the Confirm Import

Step 11. Double click on the new registry entry and insert the text “Wow6432Node\” between “Software\” and “CLSID” then click “OK”

Step 12. Click on the “the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node exist” and then press delete

Step 13. Click on the Registry Match item and again insert the text “Wow6432Node\” between “Software\” and “CLSID” in the “Key Path” then click “OK” then “OK”
Note: You don’t need all the OS matches as the “Wow6432Node” key will only exist on 64bit versions of Windows.

It should now look like this…

You should now have fixed the Adobe File Preview issues to all the computer which you have applied this GPO.

Method 2: File Preview Fix – Import Settings – Easy

Step 1. Download this preconfigured XML Group Policy configuration that I have already made for you (HERE)
Step 2. Open Group Policy Management Console
Step 3. Edit a machine based Group Policy Object (GPO)
Step 4. Go to Computer Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry and copy the file you downloaded in step 1. into and paste it into the blank area

Step 5. Click Yes to confirm the import and you are done.

The registry settings are now setup the same as method 1… except this way was SO much easier.

Thumbnail Preview

The second fix that Leo’s tool does it fix the thumbnail live preview option by implementing a custom written thumbnail bridge. Still working on a group policy preference to fix this so I will post again when I get this working.
A big thanks to Leo Davidson so be sure to visit his web site and make a donation if you find this fix useful…

Posted in: Domino Serv,Group Policy Preferences,Policy Windowns