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Every person with a computer has a web browser on their computer. The Windows operating system comes with the pre-installed Edge browser. Some of us even have multiple browsers installed for different purposes, or like one better than the other.
Most modern web browsers support different file formats, like PDF format. However, when you click on a PDF file available on a website, it often tends to only download, or open in a different web browser or app.
In this article, we are going to show you how to open PDF files in your favorite web browser, regardless of the browser that you are using.
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There are plethora of third-party software that can be used to open and edit PDF files, like Adobe Acrobat, Libre Office, etc. So why use a simple browser?
Web browsers do not allow you to edit PDF files and are very limited in functionality. However, if you rarely edit PDF files, then the browsers will do the job just fine.
Since our computers already have browsers installed, you do not need to download and install other third-party apps to open PDF files. This also saves you space on the hard disk and reduces the load on your system resources, since some PDF software can be heavy.
If you only need to open PDF files, then the web browsers will do just fine. Let us now continue to see how to configure the different browsers as well as the Windows settings to open PDF files.
In most web browsers, you need to configure the browser itself to open PDF files (instead of only downloading them). The same is the case with Chrome.
Once that is done, you can make Chrome (or any other browser) your default application to open PDF files.
Click on the ellipses (3 dots) in the top-right corner and then click Settings from the expanded menu.
Under the Privacy and Security section, click Site settings.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Additional content settings” to expand it.
Under the Additional content settings, click PDF documents.
When you click on a PDF file on a web page, it will now open in Chrome instead of simply downloading it.
Click on the ellipses (3 dots) in the top-right corner and then click Settings from the expanded menu.
Open PDF Documents under the All permissions section.
Click on the 3 lines in the top-right corner of the browser and then click Settings.
Scroll down to the Applications section and click “Portable Document Format (PDF)” from the table.
Select “Open in Firefox.”
Open Opera settings.
Click on the 3 lines in the top-right corner of the browser, and then click “Go to full browser settings.”
Remain in the Basic settings.
Scroll down to the “Privacy and Security” section and click Site settings.
The Opera browser will now open PDF files instead of opening them.
Click on the gear icon in the bottom-left corner of the browser.
Once you have applied the given settings within the browser, you can open PDF files saved on your computer in any one of them. You can either select the browser from the file’s context menu or make your favorite browser the default browser for PDF files.
Navigate to the PDF file using File Explorer.
Right-click the PDF file.
Click on the browser you want to open the PDF file in.
Clicking “Just once” will not change your default app to open PDF files.
Navigate to:
Settings app >> Apps >> Default Apps >> Choose defaults by file type
Select the browser you want to make the default app for PDF files.
The selected web browser will now be the default application for all files with a .pdf extension. Every PDF file will now open automatically in this browser unless opened explicitly in another app from the “Open With” dialog.
This article states all the methods to open a PDF file inside your preferred web browser.
When you install a web browser before any third-party app that supports the PDF format, it is automatically made the default application for the file extension. When you install another app later which supports the PDF format, like Adobe Acrobat, then you need to make it your default app manually using the same method given above.
We hope that this article helps you understand how to open PDF and other file extensions using different apps and browsers.
