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Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer

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Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat

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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. Introducing the new Acrobat experience
    3. What's new in Acrobat
    4. Keyboard shortcuts
    5. System Requirements
    6. Download Adobe Acrobat
    7. Download Acrobat | Enterprise term or VIP license
    8. Download Acrobat 64-bit for Windows
    9. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Windows
    10. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader | Mac OS
    11. Install updates for Acrobat and Reader
    12. Update your Acrobat to the latest version
    13. Download Acrobat 2020
    14. Release Notes | Acrobat, Reader
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
    8. Adobe Acrobat for Outlook
    9. Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer
    10. Explore Acrobat tools
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. PDFs converted to web pages
    12. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    13. PDF articles
    14. Geospatial PDFs
    15. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    16. Change the default font for adding text
    17. Delete pages from a PDF
    18. Edit a signed PDF | FAQ
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to PPTX
    4. Convert PDF to XLSX or XML
    5. Convert PDF to JPEG
    6. Convert PDF to TIFF
    7. Convert PDF to PNG
    8. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    9. File format options for PDF export
    10. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
    16. Edit secured PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. Create a web form
    5. Request e-signatures in bulk
    6. Collect online payments
    7. Brand your account
    8. About certificate signatures
    9. Certificate-based signatures
    10. Validating digital signatures
    11. Adobe Approved Trust List
    12. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
    7. Scale or resize PDF pages
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
    7. Cloud-based auto-tagging
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management
  20. Troubleshoot
    1. Troubleshoot PDF printing in Acrobat and Acrobat Reader
    2. Adobe Acrobat license has either expired or not been activated
    3. Edit PDF forms created in LiveCycle Designer
    4. Insufficient data for an image error on Adobe Acrobat
    5. Resolve errors related to the AcroCEF/RdrCEF processes of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader

If you have both Acrobat and Acrobat Reader, Adobe recommends setting Acrobat as the default. While you can set any installed version of Reader or Acrobat as the default, Adobe suggests upgrading to the latest version for the best experience.

Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer on Windows

Microsoft Edge is the default program for opening PDF files on Windows 10. However, you can easily set Acrobat or Acrobat Reader as your default PDF viewer. 

  1. Right-click on any PDF file and then select Properties.

  2. On the Properties dialog box, select Change.

    acrobat-viewer-1

    Note:

    If your computer settings are managed by a system administrator, you may not see the Change button. Sign in using an administrator account or contact your administrator to get the button enabled.

  3. Select Adobe Acrobat DC and then select OK.

    If you have only Acrobat Reader, select Adobe Acrobat Reader and then select OK.

    acrobat-viewer-2
    If you only have Acrobat Reader installed on your system, select Acrobat Reader from the list of suggested apps and then select Set default.

  4. Select OK.

    The PDF files will now open in Acrobat Reader or Acrobat.

Video tutorial to set Acrobat Reader as the default PDF viewer

Set Acrobat as default PDF viewer on macOS

  1. For any PDF in your list of documents, right-click on the file name and then select Open With > Other.

  2. In the dialog box that opens, select Acrobat DC > Adobe Acrobat from the list of applications. 

  3. Select the Always Open With checkbox and then select Open.

    The Open With dialog provides options to select an application to open a PDF and set it as default.
    You can set Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader as the default PDF viewer.

Frequently asked questions

Microsoft Edge is the default program for opening PDF files on Windows 10. You can change the default program for PDF files to open it in a program that’s more suitable and feature-rich, such as Acrobat Reader or Acrobat.

Adobe Acrobat Reader software is the free, trusted standard for viewing, printing, signing, and annotating PDFs. It's the only PDF viewer that can open and interact with all types of PDF content – including forms and multimedia.

Adobe Acrobat software is the complete PDF solution for working anywhere with your most important documents. It provides simple and consistent user experience across desktop, web, and mobile-including touch-enabled devices.

Follow the links below to get Acrobat Reader or Acrobat:

You need either Acrobat Reader or Acrobat. If you have both, Adobe recommends making Acrobat the default program for opening PDF files.

You can choose your installed version of Reader or Acrobat as the default program for opening PDF files. Adobe recommends upgrading previous versions of Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat to the latest version - Acrobat Reader | Acrobat.

acrobat-viewer-3

To suppress the message, select Do not show this message again checkbox.
Once the check box is selected, a registry key corresponding to it is preferred and is created at the registry path as follows:
            [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\(product name)\(version)\AVAlert\cCheckBox]
             DWORD: iAppDoNotTakePDFOwnershipAtLaunch which is set to value 1           
**If AVAlert or cCheckbox do not exist by default, then select the Do not show this message again check box on the dialog box and then recheck.

For Windows 10, the name of the DWORD is iAppDoNotTakePDFOwnershipAtLaunchWin10
Possible values of this registry key are:

  • 1: Do not show this message again
  • 0: Show this message every time Acrobat is launched until it is set as the default PDF handler.

You can create the key manually or use it using deployment to suppress the message.

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