How do I set Preview as the PDF viewer in Safari, instead of Adobe Reader X?

Question

I unfortunately have to use Adobe Reader X on my Mac.

In the past, I could set Preview as the default PDF viewer in Safari, but with Adobe Reader X, that option is disabled!

I already know that I can delete Adobe’s plug-in, but I’m pretty sure it will just come back the next time the damn thing auto-updates.

The “right” way is to change that setting, which (at least in previous versions) maintained the setting through updates. How do I do it?

Answer 1

It turns out this is a known issue. Adobe has a knowledge base article that says:

Known issues

Reader's Preferences > Internet > Display PDF in Browser is always dimmed

• To disable Safari integration, delete the AdobePDFViewer.plugin from /Library/Internet Plug-ins
• To reenable Safari integration, rerun the installer over the current installation. Start the Acrobat/Reader X installer from the original media, and then follow the onscreen prompts to complete the installation.

Hopefully the plug-in doesn’t come back the next time Reader updates.

Answer 2

What I did was install a later version to reset it using the following steps:

1) Remover Acrobat Reader X 2) Delete plug (AdobePDFViewer.plugin) found at /Library/Internet Plug-ins 3) Go to http://get.adobe.com/reader/ 4) Press "Choose a different version" under "Select your version of Mac OS:" 5) Select your operating system & language 6) Choose & download Reader 9.4 NOT Reader X 10.0.1 7) Install Reader 9.4 7.1) Say no to the extension for safari plug in 7.2) Say no to request to set as default 8) Reboot your system & preview should return to the default

Optional 9) I removed Reader 9.4 using the unistaller found in utilities and then removed any remaining folders left in applications (there was one labelled Adobe)

Hope this helps