It’s logical to assume that every PC installation contains a few common applications – irregardless of what the PC is ultimately used for. One such software install is a PDF reader. PDF is easily the most prevalent document format that exists on the web today. So wide spread is it’s adoption that Google has included native PDF support from within their Chrome browser. That is, when opening a PDF web link the browser will use it’s own rendering engine rather than open an external application – even if the application opens within your browser window – such as Adobe Acrobat.

If you don’t desire the advanced functionality of other PDF viewers, Chromes inclusion is really something special. Not only is it extremely light-weight and effectively instant opening, it’s one less application that’s necessary for you to install in order to have a fully operating computer. Furthermore, Chrome’s PDF viewing isn’t just limited to Internet-based documents – it can be used as your native desktop viewer as well!

While holding SHIFT, right-click on any PDF file and choose Open with…

In the Open with dialog click Browse to locate the chrome.exe program file.

It’s likely that the Chrome installation directory will be difficult to find – it’s usually not under the traditional c:\program files\. Rather, it’s installed the AppData folder within your user profile directory. On my Windows 7 install that equates to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application

Now when you double-click future PDF files they will open straight-away within Chrome, rather than an external application like Acrobat.