How do I stop Edge from opening PDF files?

Anonymous
2020-04-16T12:40:17+00:00

How do I stop Microsoft edge from opening? everytime I do the system performance check from dell it sets up Microsoft edge to open PDF files and I have my own program I use, however I cant set it as my default program.... 

* Original title: Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge | Read PDFs | Windows 10

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Anonymous
2020-04-17T08:41:58+00:00

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

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Anonymous
2020-08-14T08:06:25+00:00

Adobe Acrobat professional is not changing the default app.  

It was in 2018 that Windows tightened up the file association protection measures that you seem to be running into. I can't find documentation for this, but versions newer than Acrobat Pro DC 18 shouldn't be doing this. It's likely that Acrobat Pro 2017 writes to registry keys that only users are allowed to change (by using the default apps settings available).

Could it be that you're using an older version of Acrobat?

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-08-07T19:10:37+00:00

    Edge hijacks default application assignment  ...

    ...no company takes any responsibility for their bugs.  

    What you see is not a bug. It's a security mechanism that prevents (potentially malicious) applications from changing the user's choice of default browser, and generally preventing applications from overriding user choice. This is explained in an MSFT blog post from a few years ago: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20170517-00/?p=96175 

    In short, if a program tries to change the user choice, Windows (not Edge) may block the attempt and re-assert its own (safe) defaults, which happen to be Edge for both browser and PDF.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-08-07T17:51:58+00:00

    Have you ever considered that it's your environmental control. I've changed the default settings and never have Edge open a PDF. Same as you don't know anything about new Edge. New Edge came as part of one of the feature updates and has been successfully deployed to our machines. The fact that it seems very specific to your set up seems to point one to look at home. Have you checked that your policy settings aren't regressing things.

    Bad mouthing the manufacturers (who are far from perfect) is not going to get you anywhere other than more frustrated.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-08-07T17:15:45+00:00

    This advice not working... or working for a while. After day or 2, the Edge hijacks default application assignment and tries again to open locally saved PDFs. Sometimes it is necessary to change this assignment a couple times a day. Microsoft Edge behaves like kind of virus at this point.

    None of the recommendations have ever worked for very long.  We have had this problem for several years.  Since around 2015 when edge was forced onto my computer by Microsoft. 

    I have posted to numerous Microsoft forums on this topic over the years and none of the suggestions have ever worked.  I have also complained to Adobe and posted many times on their forums about this topic as well.  Adobe has always claimed that this problem does not exist, but, they say that if it did exit, it's all Microsoft's fault anyway, so they are not going to do anything about it.

    In the present software development climate, no company takes any responsibility for their bugs.  These companies have gotten so big and have such tight monopolies on their markets that they feel comfortable telling their customers to "go take a hike".

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