Can not disable displaying in browser

[BrianG]

Since upgrading to v5.5 b316.1 links to pdf's display it in the browser (Firefox). I have disabled the plug-in in FF and have gone into its applications configuration and set both "image/pdf" and "Portable Document Format (PDF)" to "Use PDF-XChange Editor". FF has been restarted. What am I missing?

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the post, however, I'm not sure that I understand - are you looking to enable/disable viewing PDF's in browser? If disable, then "Portable Document Format (PDF)" to "Always Ask" or "Save File," as setting it to use the Editor will set Firefox to open PDF's in browser with the Editor.

Thanks,

[BrianG]

Hi Will,

I figured out the problem is with IE (due to FireIE add-on in FF) but now can not figure out how disable the display of pdf's in IE 11. I have gone into the Editor Preferences > File Associations settings and set the "View PDF files in Internet Explorer" to "No" but that hasn't worked; it doesn't appear to stick. The same happens when done as Admin user and with the 'change for all users' option ticked. Also, there is not a PDF XChange entry in IE's toolbars and extensions (all add-ons being viewed). Suggestions?

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the info. - I'm seeing the same thing here with IE.

I'll pass this along for further investigation.

Thanks,

[YOUNGBRU]

I am having the same problem. Whenever I click on a pdf link in IE11, it opens it in a browser window using PDF-XChange Editor. I would like it to use Acrobat Reader.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hi YOUNGBRU,

Open Adobe's reader, and from it's settings you should be able to select to make it the default for Viewing files inside a browser.

Regards,
Stefan

[shaky]

We're having the same annoying issue as above. Has there been any resolution for this? We're using Win 7 Enterprise, PDF-XChange Editor 6.0 Build 317.0, Internet Explorer 11. I have also just confirmed we have the same problem in Chrome 49.0.2623.112 m. I have disabled the PDF-XChange Editor plug-in to no avail. I have also changed the "View PDF files in Internet Explorer" setting to "No," but that appears to be a dummy setting that doesn't actually do anything.

We're using a Sharepoint-based system to review PDF files in IE11. When we were using Adobe Acrobat Reader, clicking the files in Sharepoint would open the PDF in Reader itself. Since installing PDF-XChange Editor, the files now open in IE11 within the same tab we just clicked. When we do that, the Sharepoint page expires, and clicking "back" in the browser takes us back to the Sharepoint home page instead of to the list of documents we were just reviewing. We then have to drill back down through all the Sharepoint menus to get back to the folder we were using.

The workaround we have right now is to right-click the PDF links and open them in new tabs. However, since we're sometimes reviewing dozens of documents, that quickly becomes tedious and irritating. We'd like to have PDFs open in a new tab or outside the browser altogether by default. PDF-XChange Editor's setting for that doesn't work. Changing it as noted above does absolutely nothing.

Open Adobe's reader, and from it's settings you should be able to select to make it the default for Viewing files inside a browser.

This would solve our problem if it worked. Can you explain how to do that? I've been through Reader XI's entire preferences menu and see no option for that whatsoever. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place. I have also been through IE11's menus and can't find that option there either.

We don't want to change the Windows default PDF reader back to Acrobat Reader, because we also do a lot of PDF editing with PDF-XChange Editor outside of IE. But if we could get just IE11 to open links in Reader, that would solve our issue.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

You can already try two things in Adobe Reader XI to set it as default for IE11:
1) Run a "repair" via the Help-menu, followed by a re-start
2) Changing the option "Display PDF files in Web browser" via the Edit-menu, Accessibility, Setup Assistant, and the clicking Next until Screen 5 of 5.

To set a default PDF reader for Windows File Explorer: do a right mouse click on whatever PDF, click Open With..., click on "Choose another application", then select the PDF reader that you prefer and make sure that the option "Always open ..." is checked. Click OK.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi All,

Thanks for the posts - I'm afraid that the issue hasn't been fixed, at this time, we're still investigating here.

I cannot really advise on how to set this with Adobe, as I'm not particularly familiar with it. My suggestion would be to either rename the file extension on the IE plugins DLL's, under the Editor's Program Files folder, or delete the DLL's altogether.

Thanks,

[shaky]

Last things first:

To set a default PDF reader for Windows File Explorer: do a right mouse click on whatever PDF, click Open With..., click on "Choose another application", then select the PDF reader that you prefer and make sure that the option "Always open ..." is checked. Click OK.

We don't want to change the default Windows Explorer file association to Acrobat Reader. Luckily that wasn't necessary...

You can already try two things in Adobe Reader XI to set it as default for IE11:
1) Run a "repair" via the Help-menu, followed by a re-start
2) Changing the option "Display PDF files in Web browser" via the Edit-menu, Accessibility, Setup Assistant, and the clicking Next until Screen 5 of 5.

This is where everything went weird. Neither of those steps caused Adobe Reader XI to be set as the default for IE11. What they did do (and here's the weird part) is cause IE to suddenly start opening PDFs outside the browser in PDF-XChange Editor, which is also an acceptable fix for the issue and addresses the problem the folks above are having as well.

So here's what I have done to get to this point, in this order:

1. Disabled the PDF-XChange plug-in in Internet Explorer (as noted earlier)
2. Changed the option "Display PDF files in web browser" in Acrobat Reader via Edit > Accessibility > Setup Assistant
3. Run "Repair Adobe Reader Installation" under the "Help" menu in Acrobat Reader. I actually had to do it several times to get it to work.

After finishing up the repair and rebooting, Internet Explorer now opens PDFs externally in PDF-XChange Editor instead of in the browser. I have no idea why messing with settings in Acrobat Reader would fix the issue in PDF-XChange, but I'll take it. Hopefully it's not just dumb luck on my part and will work for other people also.

[shaky]

And also, I forgot to say:

Thanks for the help!

[John - Tracker Supp]

Please you got there shaky and appreciate the info which others may find helpful

[Willy Van Nuffel]

I have done some more tests in Windows 10 32-bit, and Internet Explorer 11, with Adobe Reader DC and PDF-XChange Editor 6.0.317.1

I got it to open PDF's outside IE11 with Adobe Reader DC as follows:
1) make sure that in Adobe Reader, via the Edit-menu > Preferences > General, the option "Tell me if Adobe Reader DC is not my default PDF application" is checked/activated.
2) now, when you re-start Adobe Reader, you will get the question if you like it to make it your default PDF application.
Click "Yes". Next you will get a question if changes may be made. Click "Yes" to confirm.
3) finally, in Internet Explorer 11, via Tools > Manage Add-ons > All add-ons, disable the "Adobe PDF Reader" add-on.

For me, this makes that hyperlinked PDF's in internet pages, will open in a separate Adobe Reader window, when they are clicked from within Internet Explorer 11.

If you like PDF's to be opened outside IE11 with PDF-XChange Editor V6, just set the Editor again as default, via its Edit-menu > Preferences > File Associations, and select "yes" at set "As default application for PDF files". Confirm that changes may be made.

[BrianG]

Thanks for your effort on this Willy. It's a shame Editor 6.0.317.1 was released without having this fixed. Worse though is that your tests indicate that installation of Adobe Reader is required in order to get Editor to behave.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Brian,

This hasn't been fixed because it is an extremely difficult problem to troubleshoot and fix.

An installation of Adobe is not necessary and what is shown in Willy's tests is nothing more than coincidence. We all have Adobe Reader installed here, for testing and comparison and I see the issue, while none of my colleagues (to my knowledge) do.

I will try to knock up the priority of the issue.

Thanks,

[shaky]

An installation of Adobe is not necessary and what is shown in Willy's tests is nothing more than coincidence.

I'm not so sure you can call this coincidence. I had to make changes in Adobe Reader to get IE11 to open documents outside of the browser in PDF-XChange Editor. When you have two different end users who don't know each other telling you they needed Acrobat Reader to fix an issue with your product, it seems pretty clear that these two programs are interacting with each other at some level.

If I were a betting man, I say they're interfering with each other during the installation process. That's the only way this really makes any sense. Since I had to repair the Adobe installation to get PDF-XChange to work correctly, I would reason that the PDF-XChange installation is breaking something during the installation process, which then requires Adobe's installer to fix it.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Shaky,

Coincidence may have been the wrong choice of word - our software and Adobe should not interact in any way and, if they do, it is not through our doing but through Adobe's, as we do not require their registry keys to view in browser. Adobe will simply overwrite any registry keys that it needs to, to set itself as default. This is true of any application setting themselves to view in any particular browser. That is not an interaction between our software and Adobe's, but is simply how Windows and Internet Explorer both require that an application works.

If I were a betting man, I say they're interfering with each other during the installation process.

If we are set as the default reader in IE, and you then install Adobe (which automatically takes all file associations), then Adobe will be the default. However, after that, users should be able to change back (which is clearly not happening for a good many users).

I would reason that the PDF-XChange installation is breaking something during the installation process, which then requires Adobe's installer to fix it.

This absolutely should not be the case. To the best of my knowledge, we do not rely on Adobe's registry keys. If we do, this would need to be changed immediately.

Our software is designed to be, in most cases, an alternative to Adobe. Because of that, relying on any registry keys that they create would negate many of the benefits of using our software.

We have many, many users for which this works correctly and they do not have Adobe installed.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hello,

I do not have the impression that my contribution to this forum is always appreciated, but still I would like to add a last thing.

You say it right, that PDF-XChange Editor is correctly working for many users that do NOT have Adobe Reader.

At my opinion it is just the Adobe Reader plugin for Internet Explorer 11 that makes that things do not work like they should do.

To make that PDF's are not opened with Adobe Reader in Internet Explorer 11, you must really de-activate/disable their plugin. It is just not enough to change the concerning parameter.

For PDF-XChange Editor, you have just to set its parameter to NOT open PDF's in Internet Explorer to make that work.
You do not have to de-activate the plugin itself. To me, this is the correct way of working.

So, finally, myself I would NOT dare to blame Tracker Software for the actual problem.

Kind regards.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Willy,

I do not have the impression that my contribution to this forum is always appreciated, but still I would like to add a last thing.

Sorry you feel that way! You're often extremely helpful and provide very accurate answers to many users, saving us quite a lot of time! We're certainly very grateful for that

At my opinion it is just the Adobe Reader plugin for Internet Explorer 11 that makes that things do not work like they should do.

I'll pass this along to the Dev. Team to look into.

Also, I hate to say, but it's worth noting that the only machine with the issue that we had access too died yesterday - due to an HDD failure, I've had to re-install and cannot guarantee that I'll be able to reproduce on the newly installed system

Thanks,

[BrianG]

Will,

Some notes/observations/questions from here...

This PC came with Adobe 8.3 pre-installed. It remains installed solely for its pdf printer driver. All of its browser add-ons are disabled.

There is no add-on in IE for Editor. Should there be?

There is an option in IE configuration called "Enable third-party browser extensions". Security minded folks recommend it not be enabled (mine isn't). Could it be pertinent to the problem?

Just throwing thoughts out. Am happy to assist in any way that I can.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Brian,

Please do enable that setting, it's possible that it is causing the issue for you. Also, please make sure that Protected Mode is not set higher than medium.

Cheers,

[BrianG]

Will,

I have tested with the third party extensions being allowed but no change. PDF links still only give me the option to Save or SaveAs.

Should I see an add-on for Editor in IE? Wondering if third party extensions being disabled would have prevented one from installing.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the post - at this point, I'd really only be guessing. I'm still able to reproduce the problem after the re-install of Windows, so the Devs. are going to try to make time to look on my PC later today/tomorrow, if possible. I'll let you know as soon as I hear back.

Cheers,