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

Thanks so much for this reply,

It pretty much solves the problem, though I still can't find the native Adobe print features (useful for booklet printing etc). However it has an "Open in desktop app" button which works.

Interestingly I found this solution a few days ago trying out Bing with a conversational style question and was well impressed when the solution you suggest was presented as the main result.

This is the correct answer! I am glad I kept reading, and it was frustrating to me that the person was asking their question correctly, and it was the same question I had except it was with the Foxit PDF editor and not Adobe, and yet no one was answering it correctly and making it difficult. Microsoft, that was such a simple solution that should have been advertised! Maybe let people know this in the settings section where you choose how Edge handles PDFs.

Hi there,

I had the same problem with you. No matter how many times I changed the file association for .pdf files to Adobe Acrobat Reader, Edge would hijack the association regularly. Sometimes, it would be less than two minutes before Edge disregarded my settings and took over the file association. I guess Microsoft wants us to use Edge really bad!

All the solutions I could find (mostly changes in registry) did not work. So I turned the tables on Edge. In the registry key Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MSEdgePDF I changed the application path from Edge to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat DC\Acrobat\Acrobat.exe (or wherever your Acrobat application resides). Now, I have Edge as the file association, but Acrobat as the application.

That is annoying. I have been very successful now with PDFs downloading and then automatically opening in my PDF editor of choice.

In Edge go to Settings

I never know where to find the PDF settings so I always just search for PDF > scroll down in the results and click on "PDF Documents"

and turn on the setting for Always Download PDF Files

Go to a website that has PDFs to download

After you download your first PDF

On the Edge Downloads Pane right click on the PDF and choose "Always Open with System Viewer"

Then try another PDF to make sure it is working.

I hope this helps!

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.