Microsoft Edge hijacking default PDF handler in Outlook 2019

[Bardude]

Every few days recently I open up outlook 2019, click on a PDF to preview and it opens up with the Edge PDF Handler instead of Acrobat. I do a repair in Acrobat which fixes it for a few days then the process repeats. It also opens normally to Acrobat but when previewing it keep switching back to Edge.

If I wanted it to open with Edge I wouldn't worry but I don't and it keeps changing on it's own. Is this a bug with Outlook or Acrobat? Is there a way to stop it from changing back without my permission?

[ls_rbls]

In which version of Windows are you on? and which version of Acrobat Pro?

[Bardude]

Windows 10 with the most recent updates and Acrobat DC not Pro.

[ls_rbls]

I assume that by Acrobat DC not Pro, you're referring to Adobe Acrobat Reader DV (free version PDF viewer).

If you go to the apps settings in Windows 10, you can select the default PDF handler from these settings (a restart may not be required but it never hurts)...

Is this the defaulting method that you've tried?

Another way, is to go to the folder where your PDFs are saved, right-click on any of them, select "Properties" from the context menu and change the program from MS Edge to Acrobat Reader... click OK and close the dialogue window to commit the changes.

Also, you may want to do the same in your MS Edge browser, and disable from the current settings the option to open PDFs in a new browsing tab and instead choose to download PDF when you click on URLs that contain a PDF.

That said, you may also try and install the Acrobat PDF Maker add-in (or extension) from the Chrome webstore for your MS Edge browser.

Even though that extension is designed primarily to take advantage of online PDF editing services(with a paid subscription), it integrates well with Acrobat Reader.

Nevertheless, it may be a good idea to uninstall the Acrobat Reader completely and use the cleaner tool before you reinstall or perform any of the methods mentioned above.

[Bardude]

So I've completely uninstalled and reinstalled, rebooting in between as well as running the removal tool and it's still going back to the Edge PDF handler in Outlook. The only way it seems to fix it is to go in and to a repair each time it reverts back.

I have disabled the Edge PDF handler in Outlook so when I click on a PDF attachment it asks me if i want to preview the file. When i click preview it asks me to enable the previewer which i don't want to do as I want to preview with Adobe DC.

The default PDF program is Adobe DC Reader.

The funny thing was, this morning it was previewing with Adobe DC Reader and I left everything open and running for two hours and now it's switched to Edge without requesting permission or anything.

[Eric Dumas]

I would suggest to try the following:

In Outlook go to File>Options (bottom left)>Trust center>Trust center settings>attachment handling>Attachment and document previewers

In the list of applications, scroll down until you find PDF Preview Handler. You might have more than 1 selected. I would turn them all off, keep only one on, close all windows, test if you kept the correct one, repeat as needed. 

It is a shame that the PDF handler created by Adobe does not have a different name than tyhe standard one.

[Bardude]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for the advice but had already done that with no effect. Have resorted to just using the Edge PDF handler as it's too much stuffing around to have to repair the installation every 2 or so days in order to get Adobe Reader back to default. Typical Microsoft I guess.