Chrome's Chrome browser window. Click 'Settings' and then click 'View Advanced Settings' on the resulting page. You may see that a button on the right-hand side to the right of 'Settings' lets you switch on or off 'PDF Viewer.' You have to activate it to view PDF files, right? Click on the button, and you'll see that the 'Turn On' button turns the feature on or off. Now go back to 'Settings' and toggle the 'PDF Viewer' option off. The feature will go off. If nothing happens after you do that, try going to Google Chrome, searching the box next to 'PDF Reader',” and checking the box next to 'Show Download button to open PDF files'. It may work, but have this disclaimer: this is not yet an official Google Chrome application! If it doesn't work, then you have two options: disable 'PDF Viewer' entirely, not only from the user settings page (which may require restarting Chrome), but also by doing the following in the 'Advanced' section of your web browser's control panel. Disabling 'PDF Viewer' altogether In most cases, turning off 'PDF Viewer' will stop Chrome from automatically opening PDF files when you open 'File' > 'Open and Save', so you'll have to do that yourself, since 'PDF Viewer' can't detect when to do that. Disable 'PDF Viewer' using the Web Browser Control Panel In Chrome you can only disable the 'PDF Viewer' using the web browser control panel. You'll be prompted to enable it, and it'll switch the feature off again. Note that many web browsers don't let you do this in the Web Browser Control Panel, even with a link to the Chrome Settings page! Clicking on the link above takes you to the Chrome Settings page. In Chrome, you can only disable the 'PDF Viewer' using the web browser control panel. You'll be prompted to enable it, and it'll switch the feature off again. You have to enable it in the Web Browser Control Panel too, in order to open PDF files in Google Chrome. Disabling 'PDF Viewer' in Chrome Using the following steps you can disable the 'PDF Viewer' in Google Chrome and save yourself some grief: 1.