It’s annoying to fail to open a pdf file in the intended application, especially for those frequent users who want to do some editing to the pdf file after viewing.

You can’t remember since when Microsoft Edge, a built-in browser in Windows 10 with limited pdf capabilities, start to take charge of your PDF files and become the default pdf viewer.

If you want to set a newly installed pdf program as the default pdf viewer, or you just simply want to get rid of the Microsoft Edge or Chrome that control of PDFs opened from the web, here we will walk you through how to get rid of Microsoft Edge or any pdf viewer you fed up with, and change default pdf viewer in windows 10.

How to Change the Default PDF Viewer to Any Program You Want in Windows 10.

Method 1. Change default pdf viewer in Windows 10 by installing pdfelement.

Before you start to configure a new default pdf reader, the very first thing you should do is to decide what pdf program you are going to use and have it installed on your PC.

If you want a more feature-rich pdf reader as the default application rather than the Edge, then we highly recommend PDFelement. With its robust features and simple-to-use interface, PDFelement enables you to read, edit, convert and sign pdf files in a super smooth and efficient method.

Of course, you have plenty of options to choose from. However, since a lot of features are nicer than the equivalent features in other competitors, PDFelement can be a wonderful replacement.

Also, you can set pdfelement as the default pdf reader by simply installing it on your PC.

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Method 2. Change through file Properties

Step 1. Right-Click on a Pdf file you have and move the cursor to the bottom, choose Properties.right-click-properties

Step 2. Then from the pop-up dialog box of the file’s properties, you can see that what the current default pdf view is after the “Opens with:”. Simply click the Change Button.change-open-with

Step 3. After clicking the Change Button, there is a list of program for you to choose from. Select the one you desire and click OK.set-default-pdf-viewer

If the pdf viewer you want to change to does not show up in this list, you can scroll to the bottom, click More Apps ↓ and even Look for another app on this PC to find out and set the pdf application as the new default pdf reader in windows 10.

select more appsselect-look-for-another-app-on-this-pc

Note: For those who set the default through right-clicking the file> Open with> Choose another app. Before you select the program and click ok, always remember to tick the box before “Always uses this app to open .pdf files”, otherwise, you cannot change the default application.
right-click-open-withtick-always-use-this-app-to-open-pdf-files

Method 3. Change in the Control panel

Step 1. Go to the Control Panel on your pc and Click Programs.control-panel

Step 2. Choose the “Default Programs” and “Associate a file type or protocol with a program”.default-program

Step 3. Scroll and select the .pdf on the list and click the “Change program…” button.change-program

Step 4. Then there will be a pop-up window, just like the one in step 3 of Method 2, you can change the default pdf viewer to the one you desire from those options on the list.

Method 4. Through Setting App

Step 1. Click on the Windows Start button.select-settings-from-start-button

Step 2. Select the Settings.

Step 3. From the Windows Settings pop-up windows, click on the Apps module and Default apps.select-apps-in-settings

Note: If the version of your Windows 10 is 1607 and older, you should select the System module and Default apps in this step.

From the Default App windows, every icon you click, a small window with a list of applications will show up. Click the one and you change the default app. However, you’ll notice that there’s nothing about PDF in this list. So what you should do here is to scroll to the bottom and select “Choose default app by file type.”Setting-default-apps

Step 4. It may take a few seconds to load the list, which contains the names of all the file types you have in this pc and the corresponding default app of these file types. Locate the .pdf by scrolling down the long list. Simply click on the icon to select your preferred program as the new default PDF viewer.choose-default-apps-by-file-type

Summary

Any aforementioned methods will work, and when you click to open a pdf file again after the configuration, it will open in the right pdf viewer you preferred.

However, since the Windows keeps “improving”, the specific steps in Method 2, 3, 4 may vary depending on the Windows version you get. So, you can save yourself a lot of hassle by installing Pdfelement to get rid of the uninspiring Microsoft Edge and change the default pdf viewer in Windows 10.

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