Microsoft Edge keeps making itself the default PDF viewer instead of acrobat

Anonymous
2023-04-22T23:24:06+00:00

This is a dup thread for one that was started in 2020. Same stuff is still happening. I'm about 5 minutes from uninstalling Edge. If my PC reboots, Edge takes over PDFs. So annoying

Microsoft Edge | Read PDFs | Windows 10

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-04-30T14:52:46+00:00

    Thanks for trying to help.

    Here's what Menu > Preferences > General looks like: There is no "Set as Default PDF Handler."

    I ended up reaching Microsoft Support through chat & gave them remote access to my PC. I had to do an update & restart & was then able to change the default in Wondows settings/.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-04-29T19:06:21+00:00

    When I open Acrobat, there IS no EDIT > PREFERENCES > GENERAL!!! (See attached)

    And changing the default app as instructed in #2 hasn't worked! Microsoft just ignores my attempt to change PDF default to Adobe! IGNORES IT!!!

    I dare not try resetting to Microsoft's recommended defaults becasue THAT'S EXACTLY THE EFFING PROBLEM HERE!! MICROSOFT DECIDED ALL BY ITSELF THAT THE DEFAULT FOR PDF DOCS SHOULD BE EDGE!!! (I would UNINSTALL Edge if the behemoth that is Microsoft would let me!)

    I pay for the professional version of Acrobat so I can edit PDFs and I make money creating fillable PDF forms.

    FIX THIS!!!

    (PS: When this laptop dies, I'm DEFINITELY springing for an Apple machine. TOTALLY worth the $$$ not to have to deal with Microsoft! I spend an inordinate amount of time fixing things)

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-04-29T08:14:32+00:00

    Thank you!!! This has worked for me.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-04-29T05:30:01+00:00

    I spent about an hour fighting this.

    Telling Windows to "Repair" Edge didn't work for me; it kept reporting that the downloaded file was corrupted.

    But I finally found a solution.

    Step #1: Kill all Edge processes. I used Process Explorer, but Task Manager will probably also work.

    (If you use Task Manager, then while you're in there you should probably also go to the "Startup apps" page and disable the stuff that doesn't need to start on every boot, such as your web browsers [including Edge], Phone Link, Xbox App Services, etc.)

    Step #2: Go to Settings -> Apps -> Default apps

    and change the default app for .pdf files to whatever you want.

    I haven't tested restarting the computer, to see if the setting is retained. But I did start Edge, and it left the setting alone.

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