Unable to change default app by protocol or filetype.

We use Bluebeam to open pdf files. The .pdf file is associated with this program, so if I double click on a .pdf file, it opens with this program.
However:

• If I make hyperlinks in Excel to .pdf files, and I click on the hyperlink, it opens with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.
• If I try to change the association for acrobat protocol, I only have the option to choose the Adobe Reader, or to look in the Microsoft Store for an app. I cannot choose software allready installed on my computer.
• The same if I try to change the association by file type (in Settings > Default Apps. For .pdf files I get several options (Microsoft Edge, Acrobat Reader, Bluebeam, Word), but other Acrobat types (.fdf, .pdfxml, .pdx) I only can choose between Acrobat Reader or an app from the Microsoft Store.

What is the best way to:

1. Make hyperlinks in excel open .pdf files with Bluebeam>
2. Change the association for a protocol to an allready installed program (e.g. in this case Bluebeam, but it might also be Sumatra PDF or another PDF reader)?

By the way: if I issue the command "assoc", it tells me that .pdf files are of the "AcroExch.Document.DC" type.

Hello Dalchina, thanks for yout quick response.

It is quite possible that the problem is (partly?) the fact that Bluebeam hasn't been registered correctly. That thought dir occur to me as well.

When I right click a .pdf file, Bluebeam is presented as one of the programs to open it with, so that is as it should be. However, it is not in the "OpenWithList" in the registry.


What I am going to try is:

• Add the executable to "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths"
• Add the executable to the "OpenWithList" for .pdf files.

I'll let you know if this does the trick.

I'm not sure. I mentioned the other file types as an example. The files in question are all .pdf files, and Bluebeam definetly can handle those. The problem is that when I click on a hyperlink in excel the .pdf file is opened with acrobat reader, not with bluebeam. I thought that maybe by changing the default app by protocol might do the trick, because there you have a "url:Acrobat Protocol". I figure a hyperlink in excel is like an url. Problem is that I can only choose Acrobat Reader, or an app from the Microsft Store for the protocol, and not another locally installed app: just like you can do when you richtclick a file and then click "Open with" > "More apps" > "Look for another app on tis pc".

I could try fooling around in the registry, but I am reluctant to do so because there seems to be a lot of keys and values involved in setting defaults for filetypes and protocols.