Open PDFs with Adobe Acrobat by Default

If your PDFs automatically open if your web browser instead of Adobe Acrobat, you may not have access to certain features like:

• Editing PDFs
• Signing documents
• Leaving Comments

The solution is to change your default PDF reader from your web browser to Adobe Acrobat.

Solution

First, check if Acrobat is installed

If Acrobat is installed, there should be an Adobe Acrobat button on your desktop. It looks like:

You can also check in the Start Menu.

1. Open the Start Menu and type "Adobe".
2. If Acrobat is installed, it will be listed in the results with the word "App" immediately underneath, as shown below.

If Acrobat is not installed, Submit a Service Desk Ticket.

Change your Default PDF Reader

1. Open the Start Menu and type "Default Apps" to start a search.
2. Click Default Apps to open it the Default Apps settings screen.
3. Click Set defaults by app. You may need to scroll down to find it.
4. You will now see a list of installed programs. Click Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.
   (your computer may have a different version of Acrobat installed. Select whichever version you have)
5. Click Manage on the next screen
6. You should now see a screen similar to this:
7. Your Default App for .pdf is your web browser (In this case mine is set to Microsoft Edge)
8. To make the change
   • Click Microsoft Edge (or whichever web browser is displayed)
   • Then click Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
   

From now on, whenever you open a PDF document through a link, it will open in Adobe Acrobat.