Make Adobe Acrobat My Default Pdf Application

1. Make Adobe Acrobat Default App

Click on the Start menu and start typing Default apps. Click on that option when it appears in the list. On the right side of the window, scroll until you can see & click on the text link for Choose default apps by file type. On the right, locate the hidden scroll bar and scroll down until you see.pdf in the very left column. Prior to Windows 10, Adobe Acrobat and Reader would establish default association with PDF files during the installation process. So once installed, if a user clicked on a PDF file, it would automatically open up in Acrobat or Reader. This association was done for all users logging into the system. For the file that has acrobat set as the default, add the condition to check if our program is installed, in this case, we check for the install folder. When you add this, click ok on the prompts and move to the next file.

Windows 8 introduced a new PDF viewer installed by default and many are finding that PDF's are not opening up in Adobe Acrobat even after it has been installed.

To get your PDF's to open up automatically in Adobe Acrobat Reader instead of the default Windows 8 PDF reader please follow the following steps.

Step 1 – Open up Default Programs

• Click on start
• Type in Default Programs and click on the first option that comes up.

Step 2 – Click on 'Set your default programs'

Step 3 – Set the Adobe Reader Program as Default

• Click on Adobe Reader on the left hand side
• Click on Set this program as default
• Click on ok

This is assuming that you have already installed Adobe Reder. If you haven't it can be downloaded from here

For those that prefer to see this in action you can watch the following quick demonstration

These steps will show how to change which program will open a PDF when you double-click to open.

This is useful if you have two different PDF programs – for example Acrobat Reader DC and Adobe Acrobat X Pro.

You will need administrator access on the computer to make this change.

How to change PDF Handler in Windows 10

1. Click on the Windows start button and search for ‘Default app settings'
2. Click on it when it appears in the list
3. At the bottom of the window – click on the ‘Choose default apps by file type' link
4. Scroll down until you see .pdf
5. Next to .pdf click on the application
6. Choose the new application for opening PDF files
7. You can now close the Settings window
8. PDFs will now open in the new application by default

What if I'm not using Windows 10?

For previous versions of Windows (e.g. Windows 7):

Make Adobe Acrobat Default App

1. Open Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat
2. Click on the ‘Edit' menu then ‘Preferences'
3. Click on ‘General' on the side bar
4. Click on the button ‘Select Default PDF Handler'.
5. Click on the drop down box and select ‘Adobe Reader …'
6. Click on ‘Apply' and then ‘OK'
7. PDF files will now open in Internet Explorer, using Adobe Reader.