in this video we changed the default file Association for PDF files in
Windows 10 hello everyone my name is Travis and this is Ciraltos in this
video we changed the default file Association for PDF files in Windows 10
before that please take a second to subscribe like and click the bell icon
for notifications of new content by default PDF files are associated with
edge in Windows 10 this may be fine for some but there may be times when you
need to change that to say something like Adobe Reader and if you need adobe
reader to be the default PDF for files in Windows 10 you may have found how
unnecessarily difficult it is to change that file Association I use login vsi to
run tests against remote desktop environments when I run tests
Adobe Reader needs to be the default reader for all profiles new and existing
the steps in this video are how I change if the file Association from edge to
Dobby Reader for all new profiles in a Windows 10 multi-user environment I
start with the Windows 10 multi-user VM and Azure with Adobe Reader installed
there are two steps to the process first I create a GPO that sets the registry
key that prevents edge from taking over the file Association this registry key
could be applied directly to the local registry of the machine but I recreate
the environment frequently enough where it's just easier to set that by GPO
after that I use dism to export a default Association XML file and then
use another registry entry to make that the default settings for all new
profiles let's get started on a Windows 10 computer that is on the domain and
has Adobe Reader installed ok here we are on the Windows 10 multi-user machine
and as you can see I've got the PDF file sitting on the desktop and if I open
that or click to open it it's gonna ask me what what do I want to use to open
this file I'm just gonna close this for now the goal with this project is to get
that to go away so it automatically opens up with Adobe
so the first thing I'm gonna do is go into my registry and from here go to H
key current user software classes local settings software microsoft windows
currentversion app model repository packages will slide that over Microsoft
dot Microsoft edge and I'm not looking for the dev tools client the one right
above it Microsoft edge capabilities and file Association I'll post a link to my
blog below and that will have all these registry keys posted in it but if we go
over here to PDF you can open up the PDF file Association and make a note of this
value you'll need it in an upcoming step it should be the same across all the
different OS builds but just in case it changes between now and when you see
this video make a note of that because we'll need that coming up the next step
is to create a GPO to change another value so if we go into let's see here
the value is H key current user software classes and then find that value there
it is we're gonna add a string value to this the value name is no open with so
I'm gonna do that through GPO we'll come back to domain controller and here you
can see I have a set Adobe Reader default GPL and I have this applied to
the oh you where that machine is the GPO doesn't set the file Association it only
prevents the Association from reverting back to the default be sure to set the
GPO and the registry key and restart before moving on to the next step and
for the next step I'm back at the machine I'm going to open up the PDF
file and I'm going to always use this app and select Adobe
Reader and click okay so now it opens up with Adobe as a default reader that
changes the file Association for the user that's logged in but not any
subsequent users that log in they'll have to go through the same step and
that's exactly what I want to avoid I want Adobe to be the default program
that opens up PDF files without any user interaction the way to make that happen
is to create a default association XML file and then set a registry key that
will tell the system to use that every time a new profile is created for the
default settings for a file Association to do that I'm gonna open up a shell and
I am running this as administrator and I'll use the dism tool this will output
the default associations for this profile as a default Association XML
file and that file will be located at the root of the C Drive alright it
completed successfully let's go take a look at that here are all the file
associations and if we go down to PDF
it's set to the application of Adobe Reader so that should be set next we're
gonna change the H key local machine software policies Microsoft Windows
system registry key to point at the default association dot XML file this
will tell the system to import the default Association file and use that
instead of the system default for associating the files thereby making
Adobe Reader the default for PDF files this command will also be available on
my blog so the operation completed technically I could make this registry
setting a part of the other GPL I left it off because I only want the settings
to apply after the default associations dot XML file has been created
ok let's login as a brand new profile on this machine and see if it's working as
we expect here I am logged in as a brand new profile so this is no longer the
administrator this is another user has not logged into this machine before
if I go into icy drive I should have a test file here and if I open this up it
defaults to Adobe Reader I have had instances where I've had to log in a
second time with the user profile but pretty consistently this method has set
the file Association to default to Adobe Reader for PDF files I hope you found
that helpful please don't forget to subscribe like and click the bell icon
for notifications of new content thanks for watching