Change Default Pdf Viewer To Adobe Acrobat

Jun 14, 2018  Easily set Adobe Reader or other PDF Application as default PDF Reader instead of Microsoft Edge in Windows 10.In Windows 10, Microsoft Edge isn’t only the default browser, but it is also the default PDF Viewer.This brings us to another interesting situation: Edge has joined the Web PDF Viewers list with Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Vivaldi. To make Adobe Acrobat X the default viewer for viewing PDF files, follow these steps: 1. Right-Click on any pdf file. From the menu that appears, Select Open With - Choose Program. Now browse and select Adobe Acrobat X from the available programs.

May 31, 2017

Background

Prior to Windows 10, Adobe Acrobat and Reader would establish default association with PDF files during the installation process. So once installed, if a user clicked on a PDF file, it would automatically open up in Acrobat or Reader. This association was done for all users logging into the system. Post Windows 10, Microsoft recommends that applications do not take over file type associations programmatically and let the user make the choice. Acrobat and Reader honor this and the installers do not take over PDF file type association on install. This does make it tricky for Enterprises, where Admins want strict control over which application is used to open PDF files. Even if the Admin/user sets Acrobat or Reader as the default PDF handler, users frequently encounter that the associations are being reset to OS default without their deliberate action.

Solution

Adobe

For Enterprise Admins, there are two ways to reliably set the default PDF handler to Acrobat and/or Reader:

Acrobat

How To Change Default Pdf Viewer To Adobe Acrobat

  1. DISM: Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is a Microsoft provided command line tool for configuring Windows Images prior to deployment. When creating OS images admins can use DISM tool to manage file type associations. This way whenever the image is installed and a new user logs in, the file associations will be based on what the admin specifies.
  2. Enforcement via Group Policy: Using Group policy admins can force file associations each time a user logs in. This way even if a user changes the default PDF handler in a particular session or an OS update changes it, the next time the user logs in, it will be changed back to what the admin has specified.

Adobe Reader Default Settings

For more details on both of these solutions, please refer to Setting the Default PDF Viewer in the enterprise administration guide. As for an end-user, changing the PDF file association to Acrobat or Reader can be accomplished in two easy steps.

How To Change Default Pdf Viewer To Adobe Acrobat

We are all ears to know if these solutions helped, or if there are any suggestions!