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
    2021-02-09T15:59:04+00:00

    I find this helpful once every few weeks and NOT helpful once every few weeks -- when the default switches back, unbidden, to MS Edge for opening PDFs. VERY ANNOYING. Do you have a fix that actually STAYS FIXED?

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-09T17:20:39+00:00

    I prefer to open my PDFs with Adobe Acrobat X Pro, but on my Windows 10 Desktop PC, Edge keeps hijacking them.  Registry hacks don't work.  However, I also have a laptop with Adobe Acrobat X Pro, and Edge does not hijack PDFs on that computer.  I wish I knew what the difference was so I could possibly fix my Desktop PC, but I don't know how to find out.  At least I know it's possible to use an outdated Acrobat program as my default PDF viewer, which of course also allows me to do editing of documents.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-02-09T17:56:12+00:00

    I prefer to open my PDFs with Adobe Acrobat X Pro, but on my Windows 10 Desktop PC, Edge keeps hijacking them.  Registry hacks don't work.  However, I also have a laptop with Adobe Acrobat X Pro, and Edge does not hijack PDFs on that computer.  I wish I knew what the difference was so I could possibly fix my Desktop PC, but I don't know how to find out.  At least I know it's possible to use an outdated Acrobat program as my default PDF viewer, which of course also allows me to do editing of documents.

    It is hard to say why or when Edge will hijack your PDF's.  Sometimes Edge will hijack our pdf assignment 10 times a day, forcing us to reset the PDF program assignment each time.  Other times we can go a week or more, doing the same work, without Edge harassing us.  We haven't been able to find out what triggers it to steal our files.  It's just one of those random Microsoft bugs that they don't want to spend the time to fix.

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