Brainlitter » Changing the desktop behaviour of Adobe PDF handling with SharePoint 2013

Changing the desktop behaviour of Adobe PDF handling with SharePoint 2013

While this won’t be the first post out there, I’m seeking to make it the simplest as I found a lot of garbage, a lot of typos and a lot of confusing suggestions – particularly this one from the horse’s mouth (Adobe) which makes it anything but quick and easy to get rolling… Winking smile  Reference: http://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/PrefRef/Windows/FeatureLockdown.html

What

If you don’t have the Office Web Apps implemented (why not? They are free if you go read only …) and have it handling PDF’s for you in the browser, you are then going to install a 3rd party PDF reader.  While Adobe is far from my favourite, if it is the tool of choice, you are likely going to run into this when you click on PDF’s in a Document  Library and you may not have the luxury of controlling the server side of things.

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Keywords: Check Out & Open, Check Out and Open

Alas, if this isn’t what you were hoping and instead wanted PDF’s to open right away, in the browser (Such as a situation today where SharePoint was being used as a “kiosk” so the extra clicking was undesirable), then read on…

So What

While you could pick another PDF reader or any other multitude of choices, if Adobe is the weapon of choice (particularly if enforced by the organization), then we need to work with that tool. Fortunately, the fix is relatively painless and could be scripted, pushed out by Group Policy, etc. if this handling of PDF behaviour isn’t desired.  This post focuses on changing the client/desktop settings to support PDF handling.

The good news is you are making a single change to your registry (Assuming you have permission to) and no reboot is required.

Now What

On to the setting…

Reference: http://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/PrefRef/Windows/FeatureLockdown.html (blech)

To disable SharePoint integration:

  1. Open Regedit.exe
  2. Go to HKLMSOFTWAREPoliciesAdobe<ProductName><version>FeatureLockDown
  3. Create a KEY called cSharePoint
  4. Create a DWORD value within the new key called bDisableSharePointFeatures
  5. Ensure to set  its value to 1

 

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