Why does Windows 10 keep changing my default program for opening PDF f

It seems to me the .pdf reader is built into Edge, at least that's how it works for me on a clean install of Win10.

True, Win10 has .zip support but for other flavors of compression I use the free
7-Zip

If you've never used Adobe Acrobat for creation of PDF files you won't know how lacking the built in PDF reader is. Same for WinZip - If you simply extract and never do anything else the Windows app is good enough.

As I said, I use both WinZip and Adobe Acrobat without issue. But of course both are updated. Most programs are actually cheaper if you keep them updated as the move to newer versions can be cheaper if you own a previous recent copy.

If you heavily rely on a particular program it pays to keep it up to date otherwise issues and costs rise.

My two cents.

Berton said:

It seems to me the .pdf reader is built into Edge, at least that's how it works for me on a clean install of Win10.
True, Win10 has .zip support but for other flavors of compression I use the free
7-Zip

Yes Edge has the pdf reader. Thank you for correcting me.

And to all the readers I feel the original post owner as I also had to convert to Win10 just a few months ago so I do feel his pain as I to have an issue of re-learning new things at 70 years young.
My brain has forgotten more stuff than what most of you have learned so far in life.
Think about that statement. lol

winxp said:

.... [snip] as I to have an issue of re-learning new things at 70 years young.
My brain has forgotten more stuff than what most of you have learned so far in life.
Think about that statement. lol

I think you underestimate the ages around here. There are a lot here that are in your age group or older. And for me, 61 to 70 is only nine years. And I've been around the block a few too

sygnus21 said:

I think you underestimate the ages around here. There are a lot here that are in your age group or older. And for me, 61 to 70 is only nine years. And I've been around the block a few too

Me, too, at 80 right after Christmas.

I got started with Adobe Acrobat Reader several years before they changed the name Adobe Reader [then they changed it back]. The free Reader was never intended to have all the features of Adobe Acrobat, legend has it Adobe created Reader and made it available to companies that had far-flung offices with different versions of software such as Word, WordPerfect, AmiPro, WordPro, WordStar, etc . A company could create or convert documents such as By-Laws, terms of employment, contracts and of late user manuals in Adobe Acrobat as .pdf, send them along with making the free Reader available, everyone would read the same thing and they could protect the files against change and other things such as printing, everyone would read the same thing. Acrobat is a nice program albeit rather expensive for home users, I had to get it back in the late '90s for a project but fortunately the income covered that expensive, still have an older version installed but haven't used it several years. There's also some online converters. Some of the programs mentioned have gotten better at opening other formats than their own, seems to be more cooperation amongst the publishers. And Yes, I have Microsoft Office/Word, Microsoft Works, WordPerfect, LibreOffice and Lotus WordPro on computers but I have clients that may have one or more of them and some can also publish as .pdf format.