This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I had to recently reset a work station and once reset I started putting programs back on a setting default apps. I had downloaded adobe reader and once it opened up for the first time it asked if I wanted adobe to be the default program and I selected yes. After doing more set up for their work station I thought they were good. Low and behold they call me back saying that pdf files keep opening up in edge. I look under setting and default apps and see that edge is still set for pdfs. But when I try and set adobe as the default app it wont change. Wanting to fix this and edge not switching to adobe for default pdf usage I decided to go nuclear and just uninstall edge (no one in the work environment even uses it). After going into regedit and setting NoRemove value to 0 and trying to uninstall in control panel... no luck. A UAC will pop up asking if i want to run the uninstall tool and saying yes, nothing happens. Anyone else run into this and find any solutions?
work station is running windows 11 also
Opening and reading PDF files in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Had this very frustrating issue, too! Fixed by going into Task Manager and force closing all instances of Microsoft Edge.
Although Edge was closed, there was a background process of Microsoft Edge running. After closing this, I was then able to change default PDF viewer (and the default browser) to whatever I wanted without any issues.
A very illegal sounding "bug"!
I am using my own personal computer. I can see the "Change" icon but it remains "Microsoft Edge" after clicking the "Change" icon. Please advise. Thank you.
Ok great, glad it works, have a nice day!
That still didn't work. But stupidly I hadn't restarted their workstation just yet. Once I restarted their workstation and went to default app settings I was able to get the default pdf to stick to adobe. Thanks for your suggestion though!
Hello Jacobs, sorry about your problems. My name is Marco and I will do my best to help you.
Did you try this?
Right-click on any PDF file on your computer.
Click on ‘Properties’.
In the ‘Opens with:’ section, click the ‘Change’ button.
Select ‘Adobe Acrobat DC’ or ‘Reader’ from the list as your default.
Click ‘OK’ to save and apply changes.
And, make sure you are logged in with an account that has administrative privileges. If you're not, you may not see the 'Change' button or be able to apply changes.
Ensure that you have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat DC or Adobe Acrobat Reader installed. Adobe frequently updates its software to fix bugs and improve compatibility with operating systems.