PDF Preview Handler Problem

[Michael]

Morning all,

 

When uninstalling Adobe Acrobat Reader (in my case using a script), then rebooting the device, thereafter the Windows Explorer PDF Preview Handler appears broken.

 

PDFs are no longer displayed/previewed, despite Google Chrome already being the default browser with all its defaults. This is controlled/managed centrally via GPO using an answer file.

 

When double clicking a PDF, it opens/displays in Google Chrome without any issues.

 

I've tried -

 

- Rebooting the device again

- Restarting the Explorer process when logged on

- Resetting Explorer to defaults in Control Panel

- Re-installing Google Chrome in situ

- Resetting Google Chrome to defaults

- Checking Google Chrome is up-to-date

 

I've observed the following registry entry was missing -

 

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers

Name: {3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E}
Data: Microsoft PDF Previewer

 

Added this in manually, restarted Explorer again and it still doesn't display.

 

I can re-create the issue on my VM, but I'm at a loss as to what else to try, unless further registry entries are missing?

 

I don't know whether this is a Microsoft issue, or is it poor coding from Adobe, leaving Windows in a broken state? All thoughts/opinions welcome!

[Michael]

I've managed to get to the bottom of this... naively I thought having either Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge would be sufficient to allow PDF previews in Explorer, but you still require another application such as Adobe Acrobat Reader or Foxit Reader, which both include the shell extensions required to allow PDF previews in Explorer.

 

Newer versions of Microsoft Powertoys also allows PDF previews by including the shell extensions - almost standalone, but not quite. In the end I installed Foxit Reader for just the users that required it, but kept Google Chrome as the default PDF viewer.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Michael