Acrobat DC refuses to let Acrobat X be the default pdf app.

[Guest]

Surprised to see how installing DC reader muscles out Acrobat X as the default pdf application, and then insists on requiring the initial install disc (!) for Acrobat X when uninstalling DC reader! This is more like the experience you'd expect from scammers than a professional software company.

[try67]

The two versions are not compatible with each other. Also, Acrobat X is and old and unsupported version of the application, not compatible with any current OS version. It won't run at all on a new Mac computer and on Windows it will probably run, but with issues.

[Guest]

Thanks for the comments. However, on the PC, X works perfectly well, and I had produced some 3D pdfs to send to someone who did not have a reader installed, so I installed DC to test that it could display the files (it can). Then I uninstalled DC, since I could not then get X back as the default app. Now I have to confirm every time I open a pdf to continue using X. The concept that something will stop working, or have issues, because it is no longer supported seems to be an Apple-specific marketing thing. Probably the same thinking behind producing minor variations of their iphone every 6 motnhs 😉

[gary_sc]

In addition to what Try 67 said, computers typically have a default mode where the last installed is the one that is first opened. So it makes perfect sense for the Reader to be opening double-clicked PDFs than the previously installed Acro-X.

He's also correct that Acro-X has reached EOL (End of Life) so any actual issues you may have will not be fixed in a future update. The issue with you system requiring the install disk is probably more your OS than anything that Adobe is doing. (And if Acro-X was working, why did you install Reader????)

Regardless, IF you are on a Mac, what you can do to return Acro-X as the application to open up your PDFs, in the Finder, do a single click on ANY PDF, then press Command-i. This will open a window on the left side of the screen as shown below. Go to the dropdown menu (circled in green) to select which application you wish to open that kind of file. Then if that's what you want to happen to all of those kinds of files, the Change All option (circled in red but currently not active because I've not changed anything) should be clicked. 

I'm sure there is a very similar operation for PCs but I do not have any knowledge of how to do that.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, tried that, and other things - doesn't stick. You can select the .exe, but the default says "unknown application". I probably have to delve into the registry to get it working again.