Why did Avast change itself to the default .pdf program?

[cgalin]

I noticed today that all my .pdf icons were switched to the Avast symbol and that it was now the default for opening .pdf documents despite the fact that it has none of the capabilities that Adobe does and is also very slow? When and why did this happen?

I tried to send an email to find out but it appears that Avast Customer Support does not have an email address so after multiple fruitless searches I was directed to this forum.

[Asyn]

-> https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=78.0

[DavidR]

@  Asyn
Not sure if this is totally related to Avast Secure Browser as I believe this has happened with other browsers.

@  cgalin
This is about file associations and can easily be resolved (why it happened I can't say).

If you go to windows explorer and find one of these .pdf files and right click on it and select Open with.  Choose your pdf reader and tick/check the Always use this program and then open it.  The icon related to this file type should now be that of your pdf reader.

[Asyn]

@  Asyn
Not sure if this is totally related to Avast Secure Browser as I believe this has happened with other browsers.

Afaik, it's a (possible) issue during ASB update.

[cgalin]

Fixed it. Thanks!

Disappointed it happened in the first place - very uncool 

[DavidR]

Fixed it. Thanks!

Disappointed it happened in the first place - very uncool 

You're welcome.

Not sure why it happened, as Asyn said "a (possible) issue during ASB update."  However you didn't say if you used the Avast Secure Browser or not.