How to stop PDF files opening in Internet Explorer?

[zulu9812]

Okay, I'm using Windows XP Pro SP1, and I've said up a limited account for a friend to use my PC. However, whenever he clicks on a link to a PDF file the system hangs and he has to press the Reset button. Major pain in the arse. This also happend if he right clicks on the link (so as to do "Save target as..."). What I think might solve thr problem is if, instead of Acrobat Reader trying to open the file in an Internet Explorer window, Internet Explorer just downloads the file to the hard drive(in the normal way, with the prompt window). But I can't figure out how to do that. Anybody have any ideas?

 

[stormbind]

Dunno. Is there an option during install to skip the IE plugin?

 

[Zwelgje]

It's strange that "save as..." doesn't work either. Does this also happen with other links when you try to save? It doesn't seem to be related as when you save a .pdf link you don't open Acrobat.

 

[marioh]

Okay, I'm using Windows XP Pro SP1, and I've said up a limited account for a friend to use my PC. However, whenever he clicks on a link to a PDF file the system hangs and he has to press the Reset button. Major pain in the arse. This also happend if he right clicks on the link (so as to do "Save target as...").

Limited Account ? How did you set it up ? Sounds like a rights/policy issue. Maybe it's trying to save the file locally to a temp directory that the user has no rights to write to or one that does not exist. I wouldn't expect that type of issue to freeze the system though, should pop up an error message instead...

 

[Paalikles]

@Zulu: try setting your activeX handling to ask before accepting

since apparently the pdf plugin for IE is an activeX control, selecting no when IE asks if you want to run it solves the problem with crashing when working with pdf files on a limited account