Most laptops/desktops will read PDF formats within a browser window. The features of pdf readers in a browser will depend on your browser. The browser with the most features for pdfs is Chrome, which includes some basic editing capabilities.

 

The most stable option is the Adobe Reader desktop application.

 

If you would like to download PDFs and read them via a desktop app, please download Adobe Reader.

If you need to edit PDFs, please download Adobe Acrobat DC.

 

My documents keep opening in my web browser instead of Adobe Reader or Adobe DC.

You may need to set your default app for opening pdf files.

 

How to set Adobe Reader/Adobe DC as your default application for opening PDFs.

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Default Apps
  3. Choose default apps through file type
  4. Find .pdf file type and click on it

 

Settings 6ö Choose default apps by file type .pcx pcx File .pdb PDB File .pdd POD File .pdf Adobe Acrobat Document .pdfxml Adobe Acrobat PDFXML Document .pdp PDP File .pds PDS File .pdx Adobe Acrobat Catalog Index .pef PEF File Adobe Photoshop 2022 Choose a default Adobe Photoshop 2022 Adobe Acrobat DC Choose a default Adobe Photoshop 2022 Choose a default Adobe Acrobat DC Photos

 

  1. Select Adobe Reader as your default app.

 

Unsupported file type

You can get this error by attempting to open a different file type other than .pdf with Adobe reader or Adobe DC. However, you can also get this error from PDF encoding issues. Sending PDFs via email can affect the encoding and cause errors. If you need to email a PDF, you can zip the PDF to prevent encoding issues, or you can share the PDF via OneDrive or Microsoft Teams.

 

Outdated Adobe Reader or Adobe DC

An outdated Adobe Reader or Acrobat program will throw this error. Please update Adobe Acrobat/Reader as soon as possible to prevent errors.

 

PDF files created using other programs

Many programs can make portable document files. Unfortunately, some of these programs do not follow the correct standards. The result is that you cannot open the PDF. Try to stick to using Adobe or Windows programs to create PDFs. Keep in mind, PDF encoding is crucial; try to stay away from legacy encoding.

 

Damaged Installed Adobe Reader or Adobe DC

A damaged installation of Adobe Reader or Adobe DC often gives the error "cannot open PDF." Damage is caused by an interrupted installation process. The best course of action is to uninstall Adobe Reader or Adobe DC

 

Further resources:

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/known-issues-acrobat-dc-reader.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/identify-product-version.html