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I'm going nuts here... MS Edge keeps hijacking my file associations for PDF files - there are others too, but PDF is the one about to send me over the cliff.

Windows 10 Pro, Build 1909; Adobe Acrobat DC, latest version installed this week.

Things I've tried:

  • Using Open With, Choose Another App, selecting Acrobat DC and checking "Always use..."
  • Using the Default Apps control panel
  • Exporting file associations using dism.exe and then setting up a local GPO using the resulting changed & updated XML
  • Using "Stop Resetting My Apps" as described in this thread.
  • Changing association by bringing up a PDF file properties dialog and changing the "Opens With" option
  • Using Acrobat's preferences to set file associations.

Windows changes the file association back to Edge pretty randomly. A reboot is not necessary. Sometimes it changes after a few minutes, sometimes after a few hours. But a reboot is definitely not required.

Has anyone successfully fixed this issue?

Matt
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3 Answers3

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None of the various registry hacks or Edge file renaming/removal tricks worked for me. What did work was: Launch Edge Ellipsis (…) in upper right Settings Cookies and site permissions PDF documents Set Always open PDF files externally to ON

Bill A
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this little app works;link

Description:

As you may have already experienced, Windows 10 may periodically reset the default apps. The reset action my take place after a Windows update or an update of one of the Windows built-in apps such as Microsoft Edge, Photos or Groove Music. It may also be caused by a third party application.

Default apps are the programs that are executed by default when you open a file or protocol. Resetting them without your consent can be extremely unconvenient, because it can take a lot of work to set them up again.

Stop Resetting My Apps helps you to work around this issue by preventing some of those built-in apps from being set as the default apps. This does not affect the functionality of those apps.

Larryc
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this is the solution:

Remove permission for %username% and System from HCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pdf

I did it with subinacl in user start script of GPO:

subinacl.exe /subkeyreg "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pdf" /revoke=domain\%username%

subinacl.exe /subkeyreg "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.pdf" /revoke=SYSTEM

After that no one can reassign .pdf assotiation. Will only be used GPO assotiation at computer level. All changes are made at your own risk.

Михаил Григорьев
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