how to disable browser integration

How do I prevent Foxit to open pdf files inside the browser window for IE6 (and for firefox too).

With acrobat reader there was a setting to allways open pdf files in the acrobat window, althought IE did not show a download dialog.

with foxit, IE does show a standard download dialog, but when I click "open" it will be embedded in IE nevertheless

On a related note, how do I uninstall foxit? there was no installer, so which settings do I have to change so that windows behaves as if it does not know anything about pdf at all?

thanks for any help

[Andreasm82]

>>On a related note, how do I uninstall foxit? there was no installer, so which settings do I have to change so that windows behaves as if it does not know anything about pdf at all?

Just delete foxitreader :)

>>>On a related note, how do I uninstall foxit? there was no installer, so which settings do I have to change so that windows behaves as if it does not know anything about pdf at all?

>Just delete foxitreader :)

Uhm, but to integrate with IE foxit must have made some changes to the registry, right? what will happen to them once I remove foxit?

I actually do not want to remove foxit completely, just remove all registry and other changes.

Originally Posted by Hugo

How do I prevent Foxit to open pdf files inside the browser window for IE6 (and for firefox too).

I looked at this today. There's two key bits you need to look at in your
registry (and some other stuff, if you're a clean freak!)...

(1) In HKCR, there's a key called '.pdf'. Edit or delete that (that's the basic
file association for .pdf files).

(2) the above .pdf entry refers to another link, also in HKCR, called
'FoxitReader.Document'. Inside that one, there's a lot more stuff.
The file open on double-click functionality is the result of the
HKCR\FoxitReader.Document\shell\open\command\ ( Default ) entry.
Removing that stops the file open thing. Its actually OK to remove the
whole "FoxitReader.Document" section I think. If you're not using
Foxit, you don't need that at all.

Those two are the bits that make the file association work. There are other
bits in the registry, searching for "FoxitReader.Document" and removing
will clean most stuff. I haven't done an exhaustive search, but when
I removed .pdf + anything referring to "FoxitReader.Document", both windows
and the Foxit PDF executable behaved as if Foxit PDF reader hadn't
been installed at all.

Originally Posted by Hugo

With acrobat reader there was a setting to allways open pdf files in the acrobat window, althought IE did not show a download dialog.

Careful, since you're going to drop IE and never use it again (haha. IE is evil, want to stop spyware, stop using ie) and instead use Firefox, then opening
PDF Files (with Adobe Acrobat Reader set to the default handler) actually
breaks Firefox, slows it down, etc. If you go to Tools -> Options -> Downloads -> Plugins in Firefox and turn OFF everyhing PDF and PDF-like, then it opens PDFs externally in the reader, not in the browser, and it works a lot more smoothly.

Originally Posted by Hugo

with foxit, IE does show a standard download dialog, but when I click "open" it will be embedded in IE nevertheless

This is something the browser is choosing to do, not Foxit. Maybe Adobe offers a dialog to do the browser's dirty work for it, but it's really Microsoft's problem, not Adobe. Follow the instructions above for Firefox, I expect that IE should have some similar capability in there somewhere - it's the same concept.

Originally Posted by Hugo

On a related note, how do I uninstall foxit? there was no installer, so which settings do I have to change so that windows behaves as if it does not know anything about pdf at all?

Well,I actually just wrote an installer. That won't help you now of course, 'cos the 'uninstall' only removes the parts it adds itself. My installer does the basic step (1) and (2) I talked about above, and removes only those when you uninstall. (It also puts the Foxit PDF Reader files in a directory in Program Files, makes icons in the start menu (+ desktop + quick start if you want) and sets up the file association if you want). That will revert to "windows doesn't know about pdf" state, but it doesn't completely clean the registry of all Foxit PDF stuff (that's not necessarily bad, unless you're a clean freak! - there's no particular problem with leaving Foxit stuff in there). My installer does that, and then when you run Foxit PDF Reader, it adds a bunch more stuff. I didn't have time to research everything so far, so my installer doesn't attempt to add (or remove) everything.

Details on the installer are in my post in the "Can you please get a normal installer" thread on this forum. My installer uses a free (Inno Setup) installer builder, and I've included full source code inside the installer (in the license section) so if the Foxit Folks decide they want to offer an installer option with their already great reader, then I hope the work I've done already will help them get a good head start.

Originally Posted by Hugo

thanks for any help

You're most welcome sir, I hope this info is useful!

GeoffB

GeoffB, quite profession answer!
Our design team will add an option to disable IE association later, then you will be able to view PDF outside the browser.

[KyferEz]

I would REALLY LOVE to see an option to disable browser integration added to the Foxit Reader software. I hate PDFs loading in my browser; and sometimes I don't want to right-click and save the PDF, just quickly view it if it's a small file.

I have looked, and do not see a way to alter that... I don't want to disassociate PDFs with Foxit Reader (as I want to double-click the file in explorer and have it launch in Foxit), I just don't want Foxit to load inside Firefox or Internet Explorer (Firefox being the preferred browser).

Thank you,
KyferEz

[Boz]

This has been talked about so many times! There are also many other similar threads.

As you can see above on September 8th, 2005, arthur said it would be done. But here it is 1-1/2 years later, and it still isn't done!

[Boz]

When will the ability to choose to disable browser integration be available?

[alvian]

In the absence of a disable switch in Foxit, here is the next best thing: A registry hack. It worked for me using XPPro IE6-SP1 & Foxit 2.1.

(Note: The registry key is "FoxitReader.Document", all one word. There is a bug in the forum software that inserted a space between "Do" and "cument". Damn bugs everywhere!)

Disable browser integration (save PDF dialogue appears)
-----------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FoxitReader.Do cument]
@="PDF Document"
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002

Enable browser integration (read PDF in IE6)
------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FoxitReader.Do cument]
@="PDF Document"
"EditFlags"=dword:00010000

[Boz]

I tried this to Disable browser integration (save PDF dialogue appears).

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\FoxitReader.Document]
@="PDF Document"
"EditFlags"=dword:00000002

I copied the text in the Code Box into notepad and named it "Disable browser integration.reg" ran it, and received a confirmation.

Unfortunately, it didn't disable browser integration for me on XP Home SP2 with IE6.

Any advice, alvian? Do you think I did something wrong?