Stop Edge from taking control of PDF's permanently!!!

Anonymous
2021-01-20T05:56:56+00:00

I am very frustrated with Microsoft Edge continuously hijacking PDFs.  I run Adobe Acrobat and need to have the tools.  I have tried the standard ways of setting Adobe as the default program for PDFs - through Control Panel, through Properties of the file, through Open with.  None of these work for even an hour.

I have also tried a couple of hacks through Regedit that seem to work for others but not for me.

I am at the stage that if i could I would uninstall Edge.

So, how can I permanently set Adobe as the default program for PDFs?

Microsoft Edge | Read PDFs | Windows 10

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-02-06T23:55:01+00:00

    I unchecked the PDF file association in ACDSee and that fixed it.

    Thank you very much for posting this. I must admit that the possibility of some program other than Adobe asserting itself as the default in defiance of User Choice hadn't occurred to me.

    @Lester - is this a possibility? If you open Windows Settings > Apps > Default apps > Choose default applications by file type and click on the current entry for .pdf, is there any other option than Adobe Acrobat DC?

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-02-07T12:44:52+00:00

    @Lester - is this a possibility? If you open Windows Settings > Apps > Default apps > Choose default applications by file type and click on the current entry for .pdf, is there any other option than Adobe Acrobat DC?

    Just to be crystal-clear about my (previous) situation:

    1. In "Windows Settings » Apps » Default apps » Choose default applications by file type" it always showed "Foxit Reader" (respective "Adobe Reader" or "sumatra pdf" when I tried those) after I had declared this application as default, using either this window or any of the other possibilities (e.g. "random pdf file » context menu » Open With » Always use..." or manually changing it in the registry)
    2. But after minutes to days it went back to Edge.
    3. Absolutely no signs of ACDSee interfering in "Windows Settings » Apps » Default apps » Choose default applications by file type". Also nothing in in Administrative » Event Viewer.

    So, in my case, the playing around with "Windows Settings » Apps » Default apps » Choose default applications by file type" was not helpful (because Windows itself was not the cause of the issue).

    The vector ACDSee used to (re-)set itself as default pdf reader is the following (screenshot from Process Monitor):

    It looks to me as if a safety feature in Windows detects this change as unauthorized and therefore resets to Edge moments later.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-02-07T20:21:28+00:00

    A more specific analysis of the events happening.

    "Before" status: Foxit Reader is set as default pdf reader, ACDSee was configured to _not_ associate itself with .pdf files.

    I just opened ACDSee's config dialog and enabled that it should associate itself to pdf files. I started recording events in Process Monitor and then clicked "ok" in that dialog. The following is what happends afterwards, filtered for the Registry path shown.

    1. ACDSee is reading the current system config and presumably checks if it matches its own config - here it reads the default pdf reader as it is configured in Windows,
    2. As it did not match, ACDSee overwrites the config now. Apparently it does not write a new "Hash" value, I _guess_ this is how Windows detects there was an unauthorized change.
    3. (Next I double-clicked a pdf file on my desktop.) Explorer.exe therefore starts to read the registry values related with pdf files.
    4. It tries to read the missing hash.
    5. Apparently it noticed the missing hash, as now it overwrites the default pdf application with Edge.
    6. And writes a matching hash.
      (Afterwards, Edge is fired up and displays the pdf file)

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-02-07T21:57:45+00:00

    I would not have thought of this!.  I have unchecked PDF from ACDSee and will let you know how it goes.

    Thank you.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-02-07T22:00:57+00:00

    I clicked on a PDF 5 minutes ago and it opened in Acrobat.  In the time it has taken me to read the new comments in this forum and untick PDF in ACDSee the Default for PDF has reverted to nothing.I will see what happens going forward ...

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