Configuring Internet Explorer to recognize the Acrobat format The Adobe Acrobat installer will in most cases automatically configure Explorer to enable PDF documents to be viewed by launching the Adobe Acrobat Reader program once the document is downloaded. If Acrobat Reader isn't launched after the document is downloaded or if you get a warning when attempting to download follow this procedure: Open the General preferences window, shown below, and select File Helpers. Scroll through the list of helper applications and if Acrobat or PDF is not present click Add. Fill in the fields and check boxes as shown below. When you click the browse button locate and select the Acrobat Reader program in the Adobe Acrobat directory that was downloaded from Adobe. Click OK on Edit File Helper and Preferences. You must restart Explorer for these changes to take effect.