Colorado State University

With most fresh user profiles created on a Windows machine, Microsoft Edge (the Windows web browser) will be set as the default PDF viewer.  While this may be fine in most environments, CNS affiliates working on CSU/Departmentally owned computers have the advantage of an Adobe Acrobat Pro site license and will may prefer to set Adobe Acrobat as the PDF viewer.

You will often discover this issue when your PDF files appear with something that looks like the following file icon when viewed on your desktop or in your documents:

The easiest way to switch your PDF viewer to Adobe Acrobat is to use the context menu by right clicking on one of these pdf files and selecting the option for “Properties”.  For Windows 11 you will need to choose the “Show more options” choice before you see the “Properties” selection.

In the new dialog box that appears, make sure you are looking at the “General” tab and notice the option near the top with the text “Open with:”.  From here, click the “Change …” button to the right of that “Open with:” text.  A new dialog will appear where you simply need to select your installed Adobe Acrobat software and click the “OK” button.  You should now notice that “Open with:” lists Adobe Acrobat as your PDF viewer.  Click the “OK” button to close the properties dialog.  Finally, you will also notice that your pdf files show the familiar Adobe Acrobat file icon instead of the above Microsoft Edge icon.

Don’t have Adobe Acrobat installed on your CSU/Departmentally owned computer?  Let us know and we can help you get that set up!  Simply create a ticket and we will be in touch: https://cnsit.colostate.edu/help