Stop EDGE from switching to PDF default

[J__Scott_Miller]

I have Windows 10 and want Adobe Acrobat Pro 11 to be the default for all PDFs. I have reset the default  many times but Windows keep switching to Edge. How can I defeat this annoying behavior?

[John T Smith]

Is Edge the new browser that comes with Win10?

If yes, you need to ask Microsoft Microsoft – Official Home Page

[J__Scott_Miller]

Edge is, apparently, the browser that replaces Explorer. Every time I switch the default to Acrobat when I open a PDF document that asks if I want to make Acrobat my default PDF application (even though it is already the default) then when I click yes I get an error that says an error was encountered and Adobe cannot be the default it's been switched  (back) to Edge.

Microsoft only says to make Adobe Acrobat 11 the default. Which I have done many, many times. But there is absolutely no response to complaints that Edge constantly switches back. This indicates to me that Microsoft is not only aware of the issue but has no intention of addressing it.

Adobe should be outraged. I certainly am.

[J__Scott_Miller · Accepted solution]

I think I found a work-around. I changed the default application for PDF to Acrobat and away from Edge. The next time I opened a PDF file I got the popup but this time instead of clicking "yes" (which just generates the error and allows Edge to take over) I clicked "do not ask this again" and things seem to have stabilized. But I still don't understand why Win-10 refuses to allow Acrobat to change the default normally.

[tonyb599]

I decided to uninstall Edge using Control Panel/Programs & Features to stop this annoying trait.

All okay EXCEPT MS is stilll changing the default viewer to Edge. But as it is not installed I end up not being to open PDFs atall - Cannot open file!!

So have to change app preferences every few days.

[susanl27252883]

I completely agree with you and would hope Adobe is after MS on this.  Every time i open anything in Edge (or IE now btw) it hijacks my pdf default setting and i am back to having Edge as my default.  I say IE, because, in an effort to stop this hijacking, i switch back to IE instead of edge.  however ths did not solve the problem.  anytime you find a file on IE or EDGE that is a pdf, it swtiches your pdf default program back to Edge.  Maddening!!!  Go to bat for your Adobe PDF Pro users, Adobe!!

[CAFAAS]

After almost every Win10 update, I have to change the PDF (default) in Windows 10.

This has been happening for so many years now -  I am now going to "stop" using Adobe PDF.

If software companies are selling software and the O/S company continually changes this to their own software - then they may decide to do this for so many other components.

Should I be forced to change all my software to suit Windows every time ?? 

In this case though it only affects Adobe products - so it looks like I will now have to keep the (even rubbish) O/S standard.

Adobe must communicate this to Microsoft - and find a way to create their own registry - and force a lock.

What is the point of keeping it otherwise  ??

If they Do Not -- Then more people will give up on this total time-wasting exercise of changing defaults every update. !!!  

[hotroadking]

It's 2020, this is still a problem, just messaged Adobe support again, and what do they do?  Ask the version and send me to this page, probably a BOT and not a human.  The problem is constant, if Edge worked as well on PDF's I'd delete Adobes products and never buy from them again, its clear they have no intention of solving the problem, either it's so sparsely reported or everyones moving to EDGE to run a PDF veiwer.

Shame it was a decent program that they refuse to support the product...

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Microsoft is changing your user preferences for Windows 10 and forcing PDFs to open in Edge rather than Adobe Acrobat or any other PDF product.

This is called hijacking, and is not Adobe's fault; there's little they can do to stop Microsoft from doing this.

Log a formal complaint with the FTC (in the USA) because it's a violation of MS's agreement in the 1990s to allow other manufacturers to run software under an MS operating system.

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/?#crnt&panel1-4 

You, as a user of Windows, have the right to set your operating system preferences to use whatever brand of ABC software you want.

And FYI, Apple does a simimlar thing, forcing PDFs to open in Apple's Preview application.