What has happened to my PDFs?

[mzjo]

I just started up the desktop, a particularly slow and crap machine running W10 (I got it for nothing so I shouldn't really complain but... it turns me off W10 more than anything else - just). What are all these Chrome icons on my desktop? They are the regular PDF files (shopping lists, old "attestation de sortie" etc that sit there so that Mme can print them out when needed without having to do anything dangerous like looking for them. What was a PDF has now become Chrome html! I take the 10mins necessary to look into the config. Acrobat DC is sstill there and most of its file types seem to be correct but the .pdf are now being described as Chrome html with default program Chrome! I have changed that back to Acrobat DC and the icons on the desktop have duly corrected themselves. Phew, if Madame had seen that....!

The funny thing is that a) .pdf are still being referred to by W10 as Chrome html and
                                    b) when I opened one up before going into config, Chrome opened it but referred to it as .pdf. No sign of where this html description comes from!

Has Google bought out Adobe (or whoever else might own Acrobat these days)? Why would anything change the program for opening a .pdf? Is there a little chinese or russian spy playing mind games with my heap of junk?

[Ham]

No, you just have Chrome registered as teh default program to open pdf, that's all

Open settings and search for "Default programs" if you want to see or change this. Easiest way is to install adobe reader if that's what you want to do.

[mzjo]

No, you just have Chrome registered as teh default program to open pdf, that's all

Open settings and search for "Default programs" if you want to see or change this. Easiest way is to install adobe reader if that's what you want to do.

No the default program was and always has been Acrobat. I am sure it was the last time I used this box as well (it very rarely gets used for anything other than the printer). I don't even try to print out  gmail attachments, they have to be downloaded and opened with acrobat before printing otherwise they don't come out right (like missing all the monday mornings on work plannings). No, something has changed the default program for me (W10 update perhaps!)

[Ham]

That'll be Chrome, it's keen on handling pdf. You can blame M$ for all manner of things, but pushing chrome isn't one of them. If you have acrobat installed, just change in the settings and the icons will change soon after. Unfortunately, Chrome taking over pdf handling is a known issue. Right click the file ->"Open with" is the simplest workaround

[DaveReading]

Or, if you have Acrobat running, just drag the file(s) into it from Windows Explorer.

[Mr Larrington]

Microsith is still guilty of a lot of that kind of nonse, mind, with it tending to “forget” that I've instructed it to use a non-Microsith program to open files which it believes itself capable of handling.  And also .pdn* files, which it hasn’t a fucking clue about.

* paint.net's answer to Photoshop's .psd, in case you were wondering.

[lissotriton]

Or uninstall Acrobat Reader because its a load of bloated crap.
Sumatra PDF works much better and quicker.

[mzjo]

As I have already said I had changed the default program back to what it ought to be and at least until the next time all is back in order.
The question I was asking was not what to do so much as why (and how).

Or uninstall Acrobat Reader because its a load of bloated crap.
Sumatra PDF works much better and quicker.

My two W10 boxes (desktop and laptop) are so slow and crap that Acrobat is neither here nor there. Ok the versions before DC came along were more useful but if I want to do something without dying in the wait I have Ubuntu (which is also probably full of crap bloatware but at least it hides the fact better)  which suits me fine.

[citoyen]

On a possibly related note, Chrome has the annoying habit of serving images in its proprietary webp format when the originals are stored as jpegs. This is annoying because I have to source images from an online library for work, and need them as jpegs.

I expect it's all part of Google being "helpful" by knowing your needs better than you. 

[Mr Larrington]

Does <right-click…copy image*> in Chrome followed by pasting into $PHOTO_EDITOR work with that .webp nonse?  I suspect it doesn’t but haven’t tried it.

* or its FruitCo equivalent

[citoyen]

Does <right-click…copy image*> in Chrome followed by pasting into $PHOTO_EDITOR work with that .webp nonse?  I suspect it doesn’t but haven’t tried it.

* or its FruitCo equivalent

You can open webp in Photoshop and convert it to jpeg which is simple but time consuming and shouldn't be necessary, and the additional problem is that webp images are compressed and I need the original quality.

[philip]

I don't use chrome so have no direct experience, but does the "Save image as Type" extension work: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-image-as-type/gabfmnliflodkdafenbcpjdlppllnemd

[Lightning Phil]

Uninstall bloatware and spyware Chrome. Problem solved.