To disable the default PDF viewer in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge:

  1. Open a Chrome browser window.
  2. Type chrome://settings into the address bar and hit return.
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “PDF viewers.”
  4. Under “PDF viewers,” select “Disable.”
  5. Click on “OK.”

Disable the Built-In PDF Viewer in Chrome

Chrome users can download PDFs instead of opening them, which disables the browser’s built-in PDF viewer. ..

  1. In the “Settings” window, click on the “Advanced” button.

  2. Under the “Privacy” heading, click on the “Content settings” link.

  3. In the “Content settings” window, under the “Site content” heading, click on the “Enable site content blocking” checkbox.

  4. Click on the “Apply changes” button to save your changes. ..

  5. On the sidebar, select Privacy and security.

In the Site Settings screen, you can adjust the following: -The site’s general settings -The site’s security settings -The site’s privacy settings

Scroll down and select Additional content settings.

When you want to save a PDF document for later, you can use the PDF Save dialog box. The dialog box lets you select the type of document you want to save, the location where you want to save it, and the filename.

If you want to download a PDF of your results, select the radio button next to “Download PDFs.” ..

If you’re using Chrome, you can disable the PDF viewer by following these steps: 1. Open Chrome and click on the three lines in the top right corner of the browser window. 2. Click on Settings. 3. Under “Advanced,” click on “Content settings.” 4. Under “Viewing,” select “Enable pop-ups and disable PDFs.” 5. Click on “Save changes.” 6. To re-enable the PDF viewer, repeat steps 2-5 but select Open PDFs in Chrome in step 6. ..

Disable the Built-in PDF Viewer in Firefox

Mozilla Firefox allows you to disable its built-in PDF viewer, but also allows you to pick between downloading documents or having them open automatically in your computer’s default PDF viewer.

  1. In the " Firefox Settings" section, select " Privacy."

  2. In the " Privacy" section, select " Cookies."

  3. In the " Cookies" section, select " Allow all cookies."

  4. Open the Control Panel by clicking on the Start button and typing “control panel” in the search bar.

  5. Under the General tab, scroll down to Files and Applications > Applications.

  6. Right-click on any application and select Properties from the menu that pops up.

  7. Under the General tab, scroll down to Files and Applications > Application Management > Application Compatibility.

  8. Open the Control Panel by clicking on the Start button and typing “control panel” in the search bar . Scroll down to Files and Applications > Application Management > Application Compatibility . Right-click on any application and select Properties from the menu that pops up . ..

To save a document in PDF format, select the “Save File” option from the “Action” menu and choose “PDF” from the drop-down menu. You can also use the default application on your computer to save a document in PDF format; for example, using Adobe Acrobat. ..

If you’re using Firefox, you can’t open PDF documents.

If you want to re-enable the PDF viewer in Firefox, you can do the following:

  1. Open Firefox and select Open in Firefox.
  2. Type “pdfviewer” into the address bar and hit enter.
  3. The PDF viewer should now be enabled in Firefox.

Disable the Built-in PDF Viewer in Edge

You can configure Microsoft Edge to download PDFs to local storage by visiting the browser’s settings page. This is a brief visit that you can make to change how the browser downloads and stores PDFs.

  1. In the Settings screen, select the Privacy tab.

  2. In the Privacy section, select the Allow third-party tracking checkbox and click on the OK button.

  3. Click on the Close button to close the Settings screen.

  4. On the sidebar, click on “Cookies and Site Permissions.”

  5. In the Cookies section, select the cookies you want to allow or block.

  6. In the Site Permissions section, select the permissions you want to allow or block. ..

Selecting PDF documents from a screen’s scroll-down list allows users to view and print documents in a PDF format. ..

This switch will turn on a computer program that will always download PDFs.

If you want to continue using the default PDF viewer in Edge, follow these steps:

  1. Open Edge and click the three lines in the top left corner of the window.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Under “Default applications,” click PDF Viewer.
  4. Turn off the switch next to Always download PDFs. ..

Bypass the PDF Viewer and Force-Download PDFs in Safari

Safari on the Mac doesn’t have an option to disable the PDF viewer, but you can choose to download a PDF without opening it.

To open a PDF file in a new window, just hold down the Option key while selecting a link that points to a PDF file. Try practicing it here. ..

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitPrinting -bool NO To enable the built-in PDF viewer in Safari, run the following command in Terminal: defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitPrinting -bool YES ..

This setting disables Safari’s support for PDF files.

Do you want to activate the PDF viewer?

Change the Default Download Location in Your Web Browser

Chrome:

  1. Open Chrome and click on the three lines in the top right corner of the browser window.
  2. Select “Settings.”
  3. Under “General,” click on “Downloads.”
  4. In the “Downloads” window, select where you want Chrome to save downloaded files. By default, Chrome saves downloads to your Downloads folder on your computer. You can change this location by clicking on the “Change location” button and selecting a new folder. Firefox: 1. Open Firefox and click on the three lines in the top right corner of the browser window. 2. Select “Tools.” 3. Select “Options.” 4. Under “General,” click on “Downloads.” 5. In the “Downloads” window, select where you want Firefox to save downloaded files (by default, it saves them to your Downloads folder). You can change this location by clicking on the “Change location” button and selecting a new folder . Edge: 1 . Open Edge and click on the three lines in the top right corner of the browser window . 2 . Select Settings from among menu options that appear . 3 . Under General , select Downloads from among menu options that appear . 4 . In Downloads settings , under Where do you want downloads saved? , select a new folder or drive (if applicable) from which Edge will save downloaded files after they are downloaded by Edge or another application such as Safari or Windows Explorer ). Safari: 1 . Open Safari and click on Preferences from among menu options that appear at bottom left of screen 2 . Click Advanced then Security from Preferences panel 3 . Click Download Location under Security tab 4 . Type a new path for downloading files (for example C:\Users\username\Downloads) 5 Click OK then Reload preferences 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 ..

Google Chrome

Chrome’s Settings page has a new Advanced option called Downloads. You can use the Change button next to Location to specify a different directory. ..

Mozilla Firefox

On the Firefox Settings page, scroll down to the Files and Applications section and select the Choose button to pick a different download directory.

Microsoft Edge

Open Edge and select Downloads on the sidebar. Then, select Change next to Location to switch download directories.

Apple Safari

Open Safari > Preferences on the menu bar. Under the General tab, open the pull-down menu next to File download location and select Other to change the download directory. ..

Change the Default PDF Viewer in Windows and macOS

After downloading a PDF to your computer, you can open it in a default PDF viewer by double-clicking it.

If you prefer having a different program open your PDFs, you must change the default PDF viewer.

Windows

  1. Choose another app to open the PDF file.

  2. Choose the PDF viewer or editor that you want to use to view or edit the PDF file.

If you want to open .pdf files using this app, please check the box next to Always use this app to open files.

macOS

  1. In the Get Info dialog, click on the “Format” tab and then select “Text Format.”

  2. In the Text Format dialog, change the text width to 100% and change the text height to 1em.

  3. Click on OK to close the Get Info dialog and save the file as a PDF.

  4. Choose the PDF viewer or editor that you prefer and open the file.

  5. Select Change All and press the spacebar.

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Direct Downloads Help Save Time

You can always open PDFs in your browser’s built-in PDF viewer, but automating the procedure saves you time in the long run. Try these top PDF utilities to view and edit your downloads.