How can i remove PDF file association? - windows 7

Tea_Bag

as the title says really, my moms having trouble opening PDF files on her laptop, but she isnt very tech savy and getting her to uninstall loads of programs and reinstalling them while skyping her will be a nightmare. is there a shortcut i can take by removing PDF association to all the programs that might be trying to open it.

i dont really want to just install a different PDF viewer and associate the file type that, because it didnt work the last time she tried that.

thanks in advance.

bette

She should have a PDF viewer on her computer to begin with! Has she got Adobe Acrobat Reader?

Start button, all programs. If it's not listed there she will need to download it.

CreepingDeath

In Windows Explorer, you can select a PDF file, then hold down the shift key while right clicking on the mouse.
That should give you "Open With" on the popup context window.
From there you can pick the default program to open PDF files.
But there's no user friendly way of not choosing a program.

Alternatively, try deleting any pdf entries in the registry.
* Not really for beginners.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf

Tea_Bag

bette wrote: »

She should have a PDF viewer on her computer to begin with! Has she got Adobe Acrobat Reader?

Start button, all programs. If it's not listed there she will need to download it.

sorry i think you misunderstood (or i wrote it badly) my OP.

I think the problem is that she has too many programs trying to open them. she just went and downloaded loads of programs and installed them to try open the pdf file. she can only remember the names of some of them too (foxit reader, adobe pdf reader etc), which is a headache for me to try remove all individually over the phone. for a quick fix till i have time to go through her progs 1 by 1, i just to remove pdf file associations from all the programs.

Tea_Bag

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Alternatively, try deleting any pdf entries in the registry.
* Not really for beginners.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf

thats exactly what i was looking for thanks!

just going by my own registry, i have 2 entries, and only 1 pdf viewer installed on my PC, do i delete both the entries or just the foxit reader application 1?
just a little put off by "content type". it looks like that should stay there.



obviously im not going to delete my own, but just curious.

thanks for the replies!

bette

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs

A list will pop up showing all the installed programs. Click on what you want to uninstall!

I wouldn't tamper with the registry unless you know what you are at!

Tea_Bag

bette wrote: »

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs

A list will pop up showing all the installed programs. Click on what you want to uninstall!

I wouldn't tamper with the registry unless you know what you are at!

Yes obvious enough, but when you dont want to spend hours uninstalling what i presume to be a LOAD of crap progs to find out that it made little to no difference, as there seems to be a reg error. start with the associations, get everything fixed, then decrapify is the best way to cycle through the problem.

if only you could uninstall multiple programs at the same time it wouldnt be such a long process.

so whats the verdict on deleting the "content type" reg entry?

bette

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Yes obvious enough, but when you dont want to spend hours uninstalling what i presume to be a LOAD of crap progs to find out that it made little to no difference, as there seems to be a reg error. start with the associations, get everything fixed, then decrapify is the best way to cycle through the problem.

if only you could uninstall multiple programs at the same time it wouldnt be such a long process.

so whats the verdict on deleting the "content type" reg entry?

I wouldn't bother. Better to uninstall useless programs and do a clean up then a defrag. As mentioned above you can associate the file type to any installed program. Right click on the icon and in "Properties" you may chose which program you want to open the file type with.

Tea_Bag

bette wrote: »

I wouldn't bother. Better to uninstall useless programs and do a clean up then a defrag. As mentioned above you can associate the file type to any installed program. Right click on the icon and in "Properties" you may chose which program you want to open the file type with.

Ive tried that already though. i associated a PDF file to adobe reader and when i tried opening the PDF the PC just hangs for a while and then does nothing. tried associating it to FOXIT reader and got the same result. sometimes it requires a reboot cause the hang time far exceeds my patience.

bette

There's too much useless stuff on that machine! I would uninstall all the useless programs. That would take maybe 30 minutes and two cups of coffee. After that I would download CC cleaner and run it to remove redundant links and finally set a defrag going before a trip to the pub!

RolandIRL

http://download.cnet.com/Absolute-Uninstaller/3000-2248_4-67771.html?tag=mncol;2

Haven't used this myself, but from the description looks like it can uninstall programs one after the other. shouldn't be too hard for your mother to use.

Run CCleaner afterwards to clean up the registry, and defrag as well.

oisin

If you want to set/remove file associations in Windows 7 - Control Panel->Default Programs-> "Associate a file type or protocol with a program". Scroll down and select PDF then click on "Change Program" button on the top right, click browse and select the program you want to associate with PDF.

Tea_Bag

oisin wrote: »

If you want to set/remove file associations in Windows 7 - Control Panel->Default Programs-> "Associate a file type or protocol with a program". Scroll down and select PDF then click on "Change Program" button on the top right, click browse and select the program you want to associate with PDF.

EXCELLENT!

thats much better than getting a technophobe to modify her registry while on the phone to here. if i could thank you twice i would.

bette

Tea_Bag wrote: »

EXCELLENT!

thats much better than getting a technophobe to modify her registry while on the phone to here. if i could thank you twice i would.

Post #8
I wouldn't bother. Better to uninstall useless programs and do a clean up then a defrag. As mentioned above you can associate the file type to any installed program. Right click on the icon and in "Properties" you may chose which program you want to open the file type with.

This does exactly the same thing as the last suggestion! Same window opens! A standard all Windows feature.

Zillah

This situation doesn't really make any sense as described. If she has Adobe Reader installed and associated then it should open pdf files no problem. There could be a million other programs installed that could open pdf files and each would be as irrelevant as the last.The vast majority of PCs will have at least three programs that can open txt files for example (word, wordpad, notepad) but the only one that matters is the one that you actually use to open it. If Adobe Reader hangs on opening then I see no reason that uninstalling the other programs will help.

Try this: Get her to launch Adobe Reader on it's own and then File -> Open the pdf she wants. If that doesn't work then her computer has serious problems that I doubt can be helped by removing some programs. At the very least Adobe Reader should be reinstalled.

bette

Zillah wrote: »

This situation doesn't really make any sense as described. If she has Adobe Reader installed and associated then it should open pdf files no problem. There could be a million other programs installed that could open pdf files and each would be as irrelevant as the last.The vast majority of PCs will have at least three programs that can open txt files for example (word, wordpad, notepad) but the only one that matters is the one that you actually use to open it. If Adobe Reader hangs on opening then I see no reason that uninstalling the other programs will help.

Try this: Get her to launch Adobe Reader on it's own and then File -> Open the pdf she wants. If that doesn't work then her computer has serious problems that I doubt can be helped by removing some programs. At the very least Adobe Reader should be reinstalled.

I find Adobe reader an abomination. PDF-XChange Viewer is my favourite.
http://pdf-xchange-viewer.en.softonic.com/

I agree with your assessment but she should try the suggestion for changing the preference to open the file first. Otherwise she will be floundering around pressing every button on the machine...