A simple question from a new user

[livetoride]

I downloaded a free membership to complete a form and somehow ended up with all my PDFs on my computer having the Adobe icon.  What does this mean, how do I reverse it and how do I use this product in the future for the rare one-off PDFs that I need to fill out? 

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

Hi

By "free membership", do you mean that you downloaded the free Adobe Acrobat Reader?

Your computer sees the .pdf extension and associates that extension with a specific program. If you intend to use the free Reader, then leave things alone. If you want to change the association back to what it was, right-click the file in Finder (Mac) or File Explorer (Windows). On a Mac, choose Get Info and set pdf to open in the application you prefer. In Windows, I think the command is Open With. On either platform, choose "for all files" and not just the one that is selected.

~ Jane

[livetoride]

Thanks Jane - got it!

[jane-e]

You're welcome, LiveToRide, I'm glad this solves it for you! 🚴‍

~ Jane

[LinSims]

A free membership to what? If you mean you downloaded Acrobat Reader, what has happened is that during installation, your OS has been instructed to use Acrobat Reader as the default program for opening PDF files, which also updated the icon used to represent PDFs.

"Reversing it" means you have to right-click on a PDF file, select Open With, and select an application other than Acrobat Reader as the default program. 

Using it for those rare instances means right-clicking on the file you need to use Reader for and selecting Open With > Acrobat Reader.

[livetoride]

I think you best understand my problem, thank you.

I use a Mac.  When I look in to my Documents, all of my files are defaulted to Adobe.  Is there a way to change the default for all PDFs at once?

[livetoride]

Actually Jane just answered my question- thanks anyway.

[LinSims]

Good thing, too, as I haven't used an Apple product since sometime before 1988 and it was but a brief acquaintence.

[John T Smith]

>downloaded a free membership

If you are not talking about the FREE Reader program, you need to cancel your one week trial before you are charged

[RuskinF]

You are seeing Adobe icons because you may have given Adobe the first preference to open PDFs.

You can go to the settings and select any other PDF viewer as a default app to open those kinds of files.