[Tip] How to Restore Classic Native PDF Viewer in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft is bringing Adobe Acrobat PDF engine to the built-in PDF reader tool in Microsoft Edge web browser. This article will help you in enabling or disabling the new PDF reader in Microsoft Edge.

Last month in February, Microsoft announced that the company will implement Adobe PDF engine support in the native PDF Viewer tool of Edge browser. The decision has been taken to provide the Edge users a unique PDF experience including better graphics, improved performance and strong security. The old classic or legacy PDF Viewer will be completely removed from Microsoft Edge on March 31, 2024.

Microsoft Edge users can use the new Adobe Reader free of cost without using any subscription.

Once enabled, the new PDF Reader displays a “Powered by Adobe Acrobat” watermark logo at the bottom-right corner while opening and viewing a PDF document in Microsoft Edge.

Following screenshot shows new Adobe PDF Reader enabled and working in Microsoft Edge web browser:

In coming days, The new PDF Reader will also start showing a new “Try Acrobat” button in the toolbar to start a free trial or purchase paid subscription of Adobe Acrobat as shown in following screenshot:

Microsoft has started rolling out the new PDF Reader powered by Adobe Acrobat to All Edge users in phases. Some Edge users might have already received the new PDF Reader in their browser. The new PDF Reader will be enabled for all Edge users on Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices.

Now there might be two types of Edge users:

• One who received the new Adobe PDF Reader but didn’t like the extra bloat and now want to disable the new reader and restore old PDF reader.
• Second who haven’t received the new PDF Reader yet and want to activate and enable it right now.

Fortunately, Microsoft has provided a hidden secret preference/flag and Edge policy which can be used to enable or disable the new Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader in Edge browser.

If you want to enable the new PDF Reader or want to restore old classic PDF Reader in Microsoft Edge, following steps will help you:

METHOD 1: Enable or Disable New PDF Reader in Edge Using Flags Page

1. Open Microsoft Edge web browser and type edge://flags/ in address bar and press Enter. It’ll open the advanced configuration page.

2. Now type new pdf in the “Search flags” box.

It’ll directly go to following option:

3. To disable the new Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader and restore old native PDF Viewer in Edge, select Disabled from the drop-down box for the above mentioned option.

To activate and enable the new Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader in Edge, select Enabled from the drop-down box for the above mentioned option.

4. Microsoft Edge will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Restart” button to restart Microsoft Edge.

5. After restarting Edge, try to open a PDF file inside the browser and you’ll see the old or new PDF Reader in Edge based on the selected preference value as mentioned above.

METHOD 2: Enable or Disable New PDF Reader in Edge Using Registry Policy

You can also enable or disable the new PDF Reader experience in Microsoft Edge by applying a policy using Registry Editor.

1. Press “WIN+R” key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to any of following keys:

If you want to enable/disable new PDF Reader for all Windows users:

If you want to enable/disable new PDF Reader for current user only:

3. Under Microsoft key, create a new key and set its name to Edge

4. Now select Edge key and in right-side pane, right-click and select “New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value” option. Set the new DWORD name as NewPDFReaderEnabled

If you want to get rid of the new Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader and bring back classic PDF Viewer in Edge, leave the value of the DWORD to 0

If you want to enable the new Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader in Edge, double-click on the DWORD and change its value to 1

Now restart Edge browser and you’ll get the new or old PDF Reader based on the value of above mentioned Registry key.

NOTE: After applying the above mentioned policy or registry tweak, you may notice “Your browser is managed by your organization” message showing on Settings page and main Menu in Microsoft Edge browser. Don’t worry! It happens when you implement a policy in the web browser. You can safely ignore the message.

Following article provides more details about this message:

[Fix] Your Browser is Managed by Your Organization Message in Microsoft Edge

BONUS TIP: Remove Try Acrobat Subscription Button from New PDF Reader in Edge

As mentioned above, in future the new Adobe Acrobat Reader might start showing a new extra button “Try Acrobat” in the toolbar to buy a subscription.

There is another policy available to disable or remove the subscription button from Edge.

Go to above mentioned Registry key again i.e. go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge in Registry Editor and create a new DWORD ShowAcrobatSubscriptionButton and keep its value as 0 to remove the Try Acrobat subscription button from new PDF Reader in Edge.

Also Check:

Disable or Remove Bing Chat Button or Icon from Microsoft Edge Toolbar

Disable or Remove Unsupported OS Warning in Chrome and Edge on Windows 7 and 8.1