open pdf files in Adobe NOT EDGE without having to download them

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I'm just out here trying to help the next person {or AI, I guess) find what they need without the pain.

Glad help if I can.

The PDF issue does not happen with Chrome therefore, Edge should not take such agressive possesion of the PDF extension. Adding an extension to the browser in my opinion, is another viable workaround, so if it works then great. The browser extension solutiuon sounds like a good alternative for people who want an easy manual way via the browser interface and that does not require administrative rights. However, this solution only works per-Edge user profile on the current Windows user profile. Other Edge user accounts will need to do the same for each Edge login and on each Windows user profile.

The registry solution requires administrative rights but it works for all Edge user profiles on any Windows user profile because it works at the OS level and not the application itself. This was simplest and best solution for me because I needed it for automating the standard WIndows build process for our company. It is also the easiest for our Help Desk tools to assist users on remote machines with very little resources and effort. Sure, the browser extension solution can be packaged and prepared for automated deployment but it woud be too much overhead for our needs.

Each solution has its own pros and cons; therefore, users can chose one or the other according to their own needs.

I didn't see an answer that I think does exactly what you're asking which is for the PDF to open automatically in Acrobat and not in the browser at all.

To do that you need the "Always download PDF files" option turned on in ... -> Settings -> Cookies and site permissions -> PDF documents". Then, after you click on and download a PDF file go to ... -> Downloads (it opens automatically when you download a file) then right click on the PDF file and choose "Always open with system viewer". If Acrobat is set as the default viewer now it will seamlessly open each PDF file you click on in Acrobat automatically.

That might work for manually configuring a machine via the Windows interface. The steps I presented were mainly for IT administrators who need to remotely push a solutuon to all company computers; and this it is a solution that works for all user profiles on each computer. Deleting a registry key with a script is far simpler and easy solution for remote deployment to many computers, or simply anyone who wants to have a quick and easy automated solution to restore their individual computers in the future without the need to navigate the Windows interface.

This was helpful to me. I was looking for the "always use external". But MS Edge and even other browsers seem to move and change where things are. I accidentally removed a profile on Edge at work and I did not realize it was going to lose all my settings, including opening pdfs outside of Edge. And I remembered there being some option to "always open with system viewer" too, but I could not readily find it. So, they kind of hid it by making you right click in the download icon. I did not think to try that at all. I also lost all my saved passwords, that is a bigger problem. :-)

Thank you for the answer that helped me.