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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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

Was this answer helpful?

700+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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?

Was this answer helpful?

30+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

161 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2020-07-24T18:39:02+00:00

    these solutions have been tried, and ALWAYS, edge ends up hijacking control of PDF a week or so later. 

    I have a full version of Acrobat, which gives me more control over editing PDFs than Edge can.  Microsoft needs to stop trying to make my choices for me. If I set a default, DON'T CHANGE IT BACK!!!!!! 

    Not only does Edge hijack the system to control whatever it wants to, it is impossible to uninstall.

    Was this answer helpful?

    100+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2020-06-23T12:59:21+00:00

    Hi,

    I used Aditya Roy's second method and that works fine for me now. Once I experimented with Edge I was less bothered about it. I originally wanted to open in Acrobat as I was concerned about zooming in on the PDF and belief that it would affect the zoom size of the normal window as Edge is too easy to affect this on an ongoing basis (I'd rather it had a default setting that you could set and it always came back to each time you loaded Edge). I used method 2 and PDFs now open straightaway in Acrobat with no discernible delay.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2020-06-22T10:28:22+00:00

    Hi,

    just tried the above and still opens in bowser (Latest version of Edge).  Please can you advise what else I can check

    Thnx

    Was this answer helpful?

    40+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments