Edge PDF Preview (From Edge 100+) for Outlook and Explorer

Copper Contributor

Microsoft Edge release notes for Stable Channel | Microsoft Docs Indicates that Edge 100 now comes with an PDF Previewer for Explorer and Outlook.

I have Edge Stable 101.0.1210.47 installed in Windows 10 21h2 (Without Adobe Reader) and cannot prview PDF's from explorer or outlook.

I cannot see an entry in Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers or the equiv HKCU

 

Has anyone seen this feature working or know how to check its available etc.

 

I am not really interested in

1. The powertools PDF Previewer

2. Other readers that do the same.

 

David

6 Replies
There are other pre-requisites, namely the installation of WebView (https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview2/consumer/ if you currently don't have it) and the reg key Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf\ShellEx\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f} needs to have a value of {3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E}.
Class {3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E} seems to be soemthing related to the pdf viewer from the powertools PDF Viewer, Josh could you look at HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E} and see that its pointing to. I do not see this class available when Edge 100 is installed.
Right, if you don't see the reg key I mentioned, you'll need to manually install it. Since PDF Preview is still very much in testing, it isn't being installed by default, so if you want to test out the feature, that's one of the steps you need to take at the moment.
Sorry Josh, Struggling with this in my head. How do I manually install the PDF Preview? I have Edge 101, Edge WebView Runtime 101 and office enterprise apps 16.0.14326.20738. I am not sure what else I need to "install".
The release notes indicate that PDF Preview for Outlook Desktop is in Edge STABLE 100, How is that "Still very much in testing".

As an FYI, whist this was not working out of the Box in 101, it it working in 102

Can see HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E} and the pdf preview works well.

I had the same issue and as mentioned above, manually adding this key corrected the issue for me.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf\ShellEx\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}

(default) =  {3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E}

 

I believe the cause was removing Adobe Reader.