Remove the right sidebar in Adobe Acrobat Reader

Article updated on September 15, 2025 by Byothe

For several years, Adobe has been annoying me by imposing a column on the right of the Adobe Acrobat Reader interface. The versions of the famous and essential PDF reader follow one another, but inexorably keep this side toolbar that I have never used (perhaps wrongly?).

Indeed, on this bar, a whole series of features that I do not use or very rarely and that I can look for elsewhere if I need them. There are several solutions to make this bar disappear and prevent it from opening with your PDF documents, but it will depend a little on the version of Acrobat Reader you have.

Here's how to remove the toolbar in Acrobat Reader

If you use a recent version of Acrobat, unfortunately there is no option to directly remove the right sidebar. However, there is a setting that allows you to always have it minimized to the side so as not to interfere with reading your documents.

1. Open Acrobat Reader
2. Open any PDF document (it doesn't matter which document)
3. On the sidebar, click on the small triangle that allows you to minimize the toolbar

4. And once the toolbar is minimized, a small button with a vertical line and an arrow will appear at the very bottom of the bar. Click on it to completely hide the toolbar.

5. Once the toolbar no longer appears on the Acrobat Reader interface, go to the menu at the top of the interface: Edit > Preferences
6. In Preferences, go to the “Documents” tab and check the “Remember current state of Tools panel” option.

And that's it, now you know how to remove the toolbar in Acrobat Reader! Every time you close Adobe Acrobat Reader, the position of the toolbar will be remembered. If it is visible the next time you open it, it will be visible and if it is closed, you will not see it when you open a PDF document.

Adobe no longer allows you to completely remove the toolbar, but this solution means you don't have to worry about it!

Disable the toolbar in older versions of Acrobat Reader

If you are ever using an older version of the software, here are some other ways to remove the toolbar in Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Reader DC.

For versions after 15.008.20082

For a while, Adobe had added an option to disable this famous toolbar with a simple box to uncheck to see it disappear once and for all this ergonomic aberration ! And it was really handy. So, if you have an old version of Acrobat Reader DC, you can try this solution:

1. Open Acrobat Reader
2. Go to Edit / Preferences…
3. Choose the category “Documents”
4. Uncheck the box “Open tools panel for each document”
5. And voila !

For versions prior to 15.008.20082 no option, but it is possible to tinker

For very old versions of Acrobat, the solution is to delete some files in the application folders.

1. Close Acrobat Reader DC
2. Browse your computer and go to the following address:
   C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat Reader DC\Reader\AcroApp\FRA
3. Create a new folder that you can call “Disabled”, for example
4. Move the following 2 files there: AppCenter_R.aapp et Viewer.aapp
5. And voila !

There you have it, you will now be able to view your PDFs in the full width of Acrobat Reader without having to close that **** sidebar every time you open a document!

This solution is reversible So, if you want to find this bar again, you never know, just put the files back in their original place!

Come on, don't hesitate to pass these solutions around you, I'm sure you'll make people happy who have been looking for a long time to remove the toolbar in Acrobat Reader!