How to Fix an Incorrect Adobe Acrobat Icon in Windows
Question details
The user needs to restore the correct application icon for Adobe Acrobat XI or DC shortcuts.
- Product
- Adobe Acrobat XI and DC
- Device & OS
- Windows
- Scenario
- Viewing or pinning Adobe Acrobat shortcuts in the Windows Start menu, Apps list, or taskbar.
- Observed behavior
- Windows displays the wrong icon for the Acrobat shortcut, such as a Photoshop icon, instead of the standard PDF icon.
Ensure you have administrator privileges on your Windows account, as you will need to access and modify hidden system folders like ProgramData to fix the shortcut.
Recreate the Acrobat Shortcut Manually
Deleting the corrupted shortcut and creating a new one directly from the executable file is the most effective way to restore the correct icon.
Unpin the incorrect program icon from your taskbar and Start menu by right-clicking it and selecting 'Unpin from taskbar' or 'Unpin from Start'.
Go to Start Menu > All Apps > Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, right-click it, and select 'More' > 'Open File Location'. Alternatively, open File Explorer and navigate directly to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
Locate the 'Adobe Acrobat Pro DC' shortcut in this folder. To verify it is a shortcut, enable the Type column in Details view. Once confirmed, delete this file.
Open File Explorer and navigate to the software's installation folder, typically located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat. Look for the application file named 'Acrobat.exe'.
Right-click 'Acrobat.exe' and select 'Create Shortcut'. When Windows asks whether to place the shortcut on the desktop, select 'Yes'. Go to your desktop and rename this new shortcut to 'Adobe Acrobat Pro DC'.
Cut the new shortcut from your desktop and paste it back into the original Start Menu folder at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
Repair the Adobe Acrobat Installation
If manual shortcut recreation does not work, the issue may stem from incorrect icon entries in the Windows MSI installer cache, which can be fixed by repairing the software.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my Adobe Acrobat shortcut showing a Photoshop icon?
This glitch often occurs because the Adobe MSI installer sometimes uses incorrect file extensions (.ico instead of .exe) in its internal Icon table entries. This confuses the Windows icon cache, causing it to display a cached icon from another Adobe product like Photoshop.
Why is the 'Change Icon' button disabled in my shortcut properties?
For many applications installed via Windows Installer (MSI), the operating system dynamically manages the shortcut and locks the 'Change Icon' option to prevent tampering. When this button is grayed out, you must delete the shortcut and manually recreate it directly from the application's executable file.
Where are Windows 10 Start Menu shortcuts stored?
System-wide Start Menu shortcuts are located in a hidden system folder at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. User-specific shortcuts are located at C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
