Downloads saving as Adobe not Chrome

[MaidinEngland]

Hi

I am not technically minded so bear with me as I try to explain.

I use Chrome browser and Windows 10.  I have stored on my computer some documents that were originally saved in pdf in April 23 - no problem.  Trying to access these today, they are now Adobe files.  When I try to open, I get the Adobe site but I am not a subscriber.  I have googled for advice - ie right click on the file and select open with........... but the Chrome option does not come up.

Totally confused how this could have happened and what to do to correct it.

Can anyone help.

Tks

[arthurk]

At the bottom of the "Open with" list it should say "Choose another app", and if you click this, Chrome will probably be in the list that appears. If not, try "More apps" and it should appear there.

After selecting Chrome, be sure to tick the box for "Always use this app" before you hit OK, otherwise you'll have to go through the process again.

There is another way to do this through Settings, but this one's a bit easier. If you still can't find Chrome, let us know and we can give the alternative instructions.

(pdf is a file type historically associated with Adobe and similar readers. Modern browsers can open them too, though they have a limited range of functions compared to dedicated pdf programs.)

[KGarrad]

I use Windows 10, but Firefox.

PDF files should be opened using Adobe Acrobat.
No subscription necessary?

[LizzieW]

This happened to me too!  I use Sumatra PDF and everything suddenly changed to Adobe.  Like you I right clicked on the file but Sumatra had disappeared from the list even though it was still on my laptop.  I had to uninstall Sumatra and then reinstall it, then it worked.  However, I also had to alter the default pdf to ensure all my pdf files turned back to Sumatra.  Unfortunately, I can't remember how I did it!  I think I went to Control Panel, Programs, Default Programs, Set your default programs and then went from there.  Or choose any of the options under Default Programs.

Alternatively, you could try Control Panel, Programs & Features,  Uninstall or change a program, click on Adobe and uninstall.  Mind you, I tried that and it won't uninstall because it states it wasn't properly installed, despite the fact that I didn't install it   I wonder if it is something to do with a Windows update?

Hopefully, someone much more into computers than me can solve your problem.

[Biggles50]

You do not need to subscribe to Adobe.

Download and install there free Acrobat Reader.

Once it is installed find your “Adobe” files and click on one to open it, it should then open in Acrobat.

For future reference it is always worthwhile saving to a PDF but also saving to another format, in word processing I also save to an old Word format.  Belt and braces!

[AngusMcCoatup]

You can also open Chrome on the desktop and drag and drop the PDF document into Chrome - it should open a new tab and let you view the contents. This will also work with the Edge and Firefox browsers too.

This obviously will not permanently change the file type association but will at least let you see the document if the other suggestions do not work.

[MaidinEngland]

Tks to you all for your time and advice.  I worked through the replies as follows:

Searched again for Chrome in the list of alternative apps or "more apps" without success.
Tried to download free Acrobat reader but this appeared as a Bing download so I did not activate it.
Checking the default progs, Chrome was showing as my default browser and email.  I did not understand the rest.
Finally, I tried dropping the PDF into Chrome - I really didn't understand this so was amazed when the file immediately opened in Word!  This appears to be a free Microsoft product that can only be viewed and printed. 

So good result overall and hugely grateful to you all.

[AngusMcCoatup]

Something else you could try…

1. Open Windows File Explorer and navigate to where you kept your PDFs (Documents folder or similar).
2. With the mouse over any one of your PDF files, right-click and select Properties.
3. From the resulting info box that opens, near the top but below the name of the file it should show the file type and application than opens that file type (if there is one associated). Underneath that is more info on the file itself – location, size, etc.
4. Next to the "Open with…" there should be a "Change…" button.
5. If you click the "Change…" button, it should ask, "How do you want to open .pdf files from now on?" and below that is "Keep using this app" followed by "Other options".
6. From what you have written in your original post, something like "Adobe Reader" should be displayed underneath "Keep using this app".
7. Below "Other Options" does it list Chrome or Edge or something that might be happy to open a PDF? Use the "More apps" option if you want to look at other suggested apps.
8. If you see Chrome in that list, then select Chrome and then OK and that should be the file type association updated to always use Chrome for pdf files.

If Chrome does not handle PDFs in the way that you want and wish to use something from Adobe themselves, as per Biggle’s reply #4, you can download Adobe Reader from here: https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/ using the button near the top left of the page. No account is needed, no payment is needed, just make sure you did not select the "Install McAfee security" tickbox before downloading. That will download the Reader installer and you can follow the instructions from there. Once completed, the installer should have associated PDFs with Adobe Reader and double clicking a PDF file in File Explorer should now open Adobe Reader instead of Chrome.

But if you can successfully open a PDF with Chrome either by opening Chrome first and dragging and dropping a document onto it or by double clicking on the pdf to open it, then I’d be tempted to leave it at that.

[Biggles50]

Adobe is a well known software company that have been around for an age.

Best known for producing the industry standard image editing software Photoshop.  They produce one of the best video editing apps in Premiere and the video effects app After Effects.

They produced Adobe Acrobat which was intended as a universal format for electronic Portable Document Files hence PDF.  The use of PDF documents took off and today nearly all the electronic manuals supplied with goods or available to download are in PDF format, which is very efficient in file size management.  Way back years ago said PDF files were not easily opened by Browsers and Adobe had their free Acrobat Reader app that would open said PDF documents.

Browser producers got in on the act by making them compatible with Adobe Acrobat and hence the need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader diminished.

It is still a good idea to have Acrobat Reader on a PC as navigating a file is easier in the Acrobat App than it is in a Browser.

What I do in my Genealogy file management is when I write the stories in Word or create a booklet in Publisher I Export to a PDF and that resides in my Genealogy PDF folder where the Word document file resides in the Word folder in both the current Word file format and a copy is in the older Word 2006 ie .DOC format, thus belt and braces compatibilty for future generations.