Make PDF default during deployment

How does one accomplish to make Adobe Reader the default PDF handler during install on Windows 10?

According to our AD guys, the only way they've found is to force defaults for all extensions, which isn't really an option for us given our vastly varying software park.

Every creative way we've tried activates some sort of Windows anti tampering system.

What is an option that works?

Edit:

Some background info if needed:

We're an IT center, deploying software using Microsoft SCCM and clients running mostly on Windows 10 Enterprise x64. Some OSX, some Windows 7, but mostly Windows 10 1703