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Cannot open .pdfs

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My PC will not open .pdfs. All I get is a black screen but no error message nothing. I am running windows 7 so I forwarded one of my .pdfs to OH who is running windows 10 and he opened it without any difficulty.

Short of upgrading to windows 10 - not right now I am in the middle of something - does anyone have any idea what is happening? The problem is quite recent.

Comments

  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Have you tried opening the PDF file from within your PDF reader application (such as Adobe Acrobat or Xodo)? Sometimes just double clicking on a PDF doesn't work as you might expect. That of course assumes that you already have a PDF reader installed, if you don't then it's not going to work at all.
  • DoaM
    DoaM Posts: 11,863 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    As above, Windows 7 (I believe) doesn't handle PDF files natively ... a reader of some form is needed. (Could even be your web browser if Chrome). Windows 10 I believe does handle PDF files natively.
  • Sam_Fallow
    Sam_Fallow Posts: 923 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    I also run W7 and prefer to use Foxit Reader. It always manages to open all my pdfs.
    I don't like morning people. Or mornings. Or people.
  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 14,641 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Homepage Hero Name Dropper
    Sam_Fallow wrote: »
    I also run W7 and prefer to use Foxit Reader. It always manages to open all my pdfs.

    Same here, no problems at all
    Eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said their cats preferred other peoples gardens
  • GDB2222
    GDB2222 Posts: 26,186 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    littlerock wrote: »
    My PC will not open .pdfs. All I get is a black screen but no error message nothing. I am running windows 7 so I forwarded one of my .pdfs to OH who is running windows 10 and he opened it without any difficulty.

    Short of upgrading to windows 10 - not right now I am in the middle of something - does anyone have any idea what is happening? The problem is quite recent.

    Just install acrobat reader.

    https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/
    No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?
  • littlerock
    littlerock Posts: 1,774 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    thanks will try some of the suggestions ( i am running Chrome browser btw)
  • littlerock
    littlerock Posts: 1,774 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Looked at my Chrome Plug ins for reading .pdfs and they are

    Chrome PDF Viewer (2 files)
    Name: Chrome PDF Viewer
    Version:
    Location: chrome-extension://mhjfbmdgcfjbbpaeojofohoefgiehjai/
    Type: BROWSER PLUGIN

    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/pdf .pdf

    Name: Chrome PDF Viewer
    Description: Portable Document Format
    Version:
    Location: internal-pdf-viewer
    Type: PPAPI (out-of-process)

    MIME types:
    MIME type Description File extensions
    application/x-google-chrome-pdf
    Portable Document Format
    .pdf

    (Ticked yes) Always allowed to run
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Personally I'd just do what GDB2222 says and use Acrobat to open the PDF directly rather than bother about Chrome plugins.
  • AndyPix
    AndyPix Posts: 4,847 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    ^^ Same.
    Use the proper tool for the job
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