How do I stop Edge from opening PDF files?

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

We understand your concern as you would like to change the default app for PDF file from Edge to Adobe.

In this scenario, we would suggest you to perform these methods and check.

Method 1: Change the setting for Apps

1. Press Windows + I key to launch Windows Settings.
2. Click on Apps and select Default apps from the left pane.
3. Now scroll down and click on Choose default apps by file type.
4. Scroll and look for .pdf, .pdxml, and .pdx file type, then click on the + sign to change it to Adobe Reader.

Method 2: Stop opening PDF file if you are using New Edge Chromium.

1. Open Microsoft Edge
2. Click on the three dots (…) from the right top corner.
3. Select Settings from the drop down and click on Site permissions from the left pane.
4. Scroll down and click on PDF documents, Toggle the switch to On for Always open PDF files externally.

Notes: If the Always open PDF files externally is on then if you try to open any online PDF document, it will prompt you to download and later you can use Adobe Reader to view.

Regards,

Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator

Method 1 only works till the next time Edge appropriates control

Method 2 results in a loop where Edge keeps downloading the PDF file because of Method 1

OK. Just to underline the fundamental cause of what you're seeing: Acrobat (released 2018 or earlier) writes to a protected registry key that only users have permission to change. Windows detects this and discards the change, reverting to the Windows default for the PDF file association, which is Edge. 

I'm not in a position to test any of this, but a bit of study indicates that system administrators have the ability to change this Windows default through Group Policy. If I read this correctly, if Acrobat persists in writing to the registry, the reversion will be to the default imposed by GP - which could be Acrobat again, so no change. The user will, I think, be able to override this by exercising user choice through the Default apps control panel or Always use this app in a PDF file's properties dialogue. This choice should however be reset at each log-on.

So it may be worth trying the GP route to prevent the annoyance you're being subjected to. There's a good write-up at the Adobe site; see Solution 2 on this page:

https://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/AdminGuide/pdfviewer.html

Sorry if you've already tried this unsuccessfully.

We are using Adobe Acrobat Pro XI with a copyright date of 2012.  We have tried later versions and everybody still thinks that this was the best version.  Unfortunately, subsequent versions of Acrobat have emphasized cuteness rather than functionality of their GUI.  Many people have contacted Adobe in numerous forums and their response is that this is all Microsoft's problem and they say they can do nothing about it.

It doesn't seem like Acrobat that is incorrectly setting the association.  I can manually change the association to Acrobat, and without ever running Acrobat, can sometimes within minutes see Edge change the association back, by watching the file icons change.

We run a LOT of different software packages in our company and this is the only program that consistently has its file association changed.  The best solution would be to delete Edge rather than buying 100 new copies of Acrobat Pro at $500/seat for the office.  Especially when that version is not a good as the one we are presently using.

How can we delete edge from windows?  In settings, the "Programs and Features" group will let you think that you have deleted edge, but it is actually still there on your computer stealing the PDF association.