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PDF icons showing up blank in Windows Explorer when the default PDF viewer is set to Chrome

Anonymous
2024-10-23T16:53:36+00:00

As of yesterday, 10/22/2024, the icon for .pdf is no longer showing up as the Chrome icon when my default .pdf viewer is set as Chrome. I do not know why the icon disappeared but it makes navigating folders extremely difficult. I have tried deleting my icon cache and restarting, changing my default viewer to something else and back, and replacing the Chrome icon. What is going on Windows? I know that Windows updates happen on Tuesday evenings, so why did this change?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Settings

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-11-17T01:16:02+00:00

    I've tried everything. The only way to get the PDF icon back is to have it always open with Microsoft Edge. Please fix as I would prefer to open pdf files with a different browser.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-10-29T18:28:35+00:00

    Having the same issue. For seemingly no reason, PDF icons associated with Chrome turned into just white sheet icons. It's now changed to a white sheet with the Chrome icon in it.

    What gives??

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-10-26T03:04:35+00:00

    I appreciate you answering but this doesn't fix it. I've also been having this problem for the past week or so.

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  4. Gunasekar N 67,475 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2024-10-23T17:43:00+00:00

    Hello Logan,

    Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community and I'll be glad to assist you today.

    Several users have reported that PDF icons appear blank or transparent after updating Windows to the latest version. I recommend trying the following troubleshooting methods to see if it helps.

    Method 1.Re-install Google Chrome.

    • Go to Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Uninstall Google Chrome browser in the lists.
    • Install Google Chrome again.

    Method 2.Set Google Chrome as the Default .PDF viewer.

    1. Right-click andy .PDF file and select Open with >.
    2. In the "Choose your Preferred PDF viewer" dialog box, select Google Chrome and check "Always use this app to open .pdf files."
    3. Click OK.

    Additionally, you can also follow these steps to set the default PDF viewer in settings:

    • Open Settings.
    • Go to Apps and select Default Apps.
    • Scroll down and click on Choose defaults by file type.
    • Locate .pdf in the list of file extensions.
    • Click the default app next to .pdf and select Google Chrome.

    I hope this information helps. If you have any questions, please let me know and I will be happy to help you further.

    Best regards,

    Gunasekar N

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-10-24T04:51:20+00:00

    I have had the same problem since yesterday (10/23/24, likely when it updated Windows while I was asleep) and tried both setting the PDF file type to default to Google Chrome (even though it already was) and using the "always open" option to force grabbing of the Google Chrome program information: doesn't fix the problem at all. I have a lot of important tabs open and don't think reinstalling Chrome is going to solve the issue...

    UPDATE: I updated Chrome to the newest version and then tried using the "always option" to manually set PDF type to always open with Chrome, and that kid of worked, but not sure if it is correct or did they actually change it? (looks like a page icon with embedded chrome icon inside now, before was just chrome icon) ->

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