How To Set Acrobat As Default Pdf Viewer Mac

Both Acrobat and Reader can reside on the same machine, and the default handler can be set in the following ways:

• How To Set Acrobat As Default Pdf Viewer Mac
• How To Set Acrobat As Default Pdf Viewer Machine
• How To Set Acrobat As Default Pdf Viewer Macro

How To Set Adobe Reader As Default Set Adobe Reader As Default Pdf My computer is currently running Mac OSX v10.5.5. I have been trying out Adobe Reader as a PDF reader for a while, and found that its way better than Apple's version of it, Preview. How To Set Adobe Reader As Default Set Adobe Reader As Default Pdf My computer is currently running Mac OSX v10.5.5. I have been trying out Adobe Reader as a PDF reader for a while, and found that its way better than Apple's version of it, Preview. To access the preferences dialog, choose Edit Preferences (Windows) or Acrobat / Adobe Acrobat Reader Preferences (Mac OS).

• How to Set the Default PDF Application Using the Command Line. In some cases it may be easier to set the default PDF Application using the command line or a script such as after a Network install. In Edit Preferences General Startup 'Set eCopy PDF Pro Office as default PDF application.' Button opens a process called DefaultViewer.exe.
• Reader DC or Acrobat DC. Here's how to set it up: (Instructions from Adobe.com) WINDOWS USERS 1. Right-click the PDF, choose Open With Choose default program or another app in. Choose Adobe Acrobat Reader DC or Adobe Acrobat DC in the list of programs, and then do one of the following: (Windows 10) Select Always use this app to open.pdf.

• Set the default handler at install time.

• Configure the installer prior to deployment via the Wizard or command line.

• After a product install, choose Preferences > General > Select Default PDF Handler.

Windows¶

The steps below apply to all 11.x and later apps deployed on Windows 8 and above.

The problem¶

Admins often want to reliably set Acrobat and Reader as the default PDF owners on their organization's desktops. Since Windows 8, it has become more difficult for applications to take ownership of certain filetypes. Even when admins have a method for setting a default handler (described above), once the application is installed end users can change the file type associations via the Control Panel or with Right Click > Open With. Additionally, other applications sometimes force Windows to show an application selection dialog when a user clicks on a file, thereby allowing users to select a different application for that file type. Thus, since Windows 8, admins have little control over file type associations after installing an application.

First step¶

Both configuration solutions below require an XML file associations file. You can either download the sample file association files which includes all the file types supported by Acrobat and Reader, or you can create your own XML file:

1. Run an elevated command prompt on a machine that has your default application set correctly.

2. Type Dism/Online/Export-DefaultAppAssociations:path>AppAssoc.xml. This creates an XML file that has all your file types and their current associations.

3. Edit the XML file to include only the file associations that you wish to enforce.

Note

You can create different files for different groups in your organization. For example, one group may use Adobe Reader as the default while another uses Acrobat.

Solution 1: DISM¶

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is a way to enforce file type associations. While it remains difficult to prevent users from selecting alternative default applications, Microsoft addresses this problem by providing DISM as a way for admins to reinstate the defaults when a user logs off and on.

While DISM is a command-line tool that is used to mount and service Windows images before deployment, it can also be used to set file type owners on Windows 8 and above. Admins can use the default application association-servicing commands to import, export, list, and remove the settings that specify which application opens a file based on the file name extension or protocol. Microsoft provides many DISM command line options for performing these steps.

Note

Some admins have been troubleshooting issues here: https://forums.adobe.com/message/10429439#10429439

Solution 2: GPO policy¶

You can also enforce the filetype via GPO policies. Using Group policy admins can force file associations each time a user logs in. This way even if a user changes the default PDF handler in a particular session or an OS update changes it, the next time the user logs in, it will be changed back to what the admin has specified.

To set the file handler via a GPO:

1. Create or download the XML file as described above.

2. Place the XML on a shared network location or push this XML to all your machine-specific locations via a script. For example, C:WindowsSystem32 (do not use a user-specific location).

3. Set the XML configured with your preferences in a Windows Group Policy setting, and enable the setting as follows:

   1. Open up the Group Policy MMC (open a command prompt and type gpedit.msc) on your Server 2012 instance.

   2. Locate the policy under ComputerConfigurationAdministrativeTemplatesWindowsComponentsFileExplorerSetadefaultassociationsconfigurationfile. This policy specifies the path for the XML file that can be either stored locally or on a network location. This is a machine-level policy. It is not possible to create user-level policy.

   3. Enable the policy, and specify the location where you have stored the XML file. The corresponding registry entry is HKLMSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindowsSystemDefaultAssociationsConfiguration.

File associations will now be enforced on user logon.

Local Group Policy Editor

Set a file association configuration file

Limitations¶

1. The end user machine needs to be domain-joined for this method to work.

2. Users can change the file associations during the current session. However, admin settings are reinstated at next logon.

3. As of 5th Feb 2016, it is a known limitation of Windows 10 that when new user is created on the machine after enforcing the GPO Policy, then on first login ownership is not set. However, the correct settings are applied on subsequent logins.

Resetting the default PDF handler¶

To make Reader the default PDF handler after installing Acrobat, find and run ADelRCP.exe in elevated mode. ADelRCP.exe is Acrobat's PDF handler program for Windows.

Affected ProgIDs for various products¶

How To Set Acrobat As Default Pdf Viewer Mac

Locking the PDF viewer¶

Admins can prevent end users from changing the setting by using the HKLM feature lockdown preference DisablePDFHandlerSwitching.

Note

This does not prevent users from changing PDF ownership using Windows Explorer.

PDF has greatly expanded the boundaries of digital documents that swell today, it brings us a much more innovative way to present our ideas. Therefore, people, especially office people use PDF very often. It is a commonsense understanding that we all need a PDF viewer to open and view a PDF file. There are so many options on a PDF reader, then how to change the default PDF viewer to our preferred one on mac?

In effect, it is quite easy to change the default PDF viewer on mac, here we list 3 methods to make this, no matter you want to change default PDF viewer to Preview, Adobe or other PDF readers for Mac.

How To Set Acrobat As Default Pdf Viewer Machine

Method 1. Change Default PDF Viewer via Get Info Menu

To change default PDF viewer on mac with Get Info menu is the most universal way that Apple macOS support itself and other authorities are recommending. So, we will begin with this method to change your default PDF viewer to Preview, Adobe Acrobat or other PDF readers.

1. Right click on a PDF file, then choose Get Info.
2. Then go to Open with. Now, the defaulted PDF viewer on my mac is Preview, you can click the drop-down menu to shift to another installed PDF viewer on your mac, like Adobe Acrobat Reader or others.
3. Then click on the Change All>Continue to change the default viewer to your selected one. Open a PDF, you will find the default PDF viewer for your mac has been changed.

Method 2. Change Default PDF Viewer on Mac via 'Always Open With'

Another method to change default PDF viewer on mac is enabling the 'Always Open With' menu and choose your preferred viewer on mac.

1. Right click on a PDF file, choose Open With>Other…
2. Then go to Enable, choose Recommended Applications and select the PDF viewer you want to set as default from the app list. After that, check the box before Always Open With. If you cannot find the PDF viewer your want to change as the defaulted one from the Recommended app list, go to Enable>All Applications, then choose your wanted PDF viewer, and check the box before Always Open With.
3. Last, click on Open to change your default PDF viewer on mac.

Method 3. Change Default PDF Viewer when Installing a New PDF Viewer

How To Set Acrobat As Default Pdf Viewer Macro

The last, but not the least convenient way to change default PDF viewer on mac is doing this as the installation of a new PDF viewer starts.

The reason why you want to change the default PDF viewer on mac is mainly for that you have other PDF viewers installed or will be installed on your mac. You can easily do this when installing a new PDF reader, since a newly installed PDF viewer will allow you to change the default viewer.

Here we take PDFExpert as the example, since it is the most popular Mac PDF reader and editor to work on your PDF files, it is much likely that you will install a PDF tools as powerful as PDFExpert.

The Ultimate PDF Editor for Mac

PDF Expert Allows Users to:

• Edit PDF: edit text, image, link
• Redact, annotate, protect, sign, crop, rotate, extract PDF
• Insert/Add/Delete PDF pages, add/remove page numbers
• Scan & OCR PDF files to recognize text from scanned PDF or image
• Export PDF as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Text, Image
• Export annotation summary
• Create PDF from Word, Image, etc.
• Competitive price: $49.99

1. Head to PDFExpert website, download the installer.
2. Run the installer and go to the Installation Wizard as following.
3. Tick before Set PDF Expert as default PDF reader;
4. Then click Install to change the default PDF viewer on your mac.