Microsoft has announced that it will be shutting down and ending support for its own Reader app in early 2018 for all Windows 10 devices.
The notice came as a pop-up message in the app itself after a recent update that states that the app will become completely unusable after February 15th next year. The message also suggests that users begin using the company’s Microsoft Edge browser as a pdf reader replacement app. Here’s the full announcement.
The Reader app was launched alongside the Windows 8 operating system and was designed for use on traditional PCs and Windows 8 touchscreen devices. The app is extremely fast and efficient in addition to being rather lightweight and as such is still the preferred app for many users when it comes to reading and signing files. It appears that it will remain functional on Windows 8 devices that have yet to upgrade to Windows 10.
The Microsoft Edge browser has been able to read pdf files for a while now but it’s noticeably slower than the Reader app and also takes up more system resources. Given that there’s no logical reason for users to not use the Reader app, its shutting down on Windows 10 devices appears to be a deliberate attempt by Microsoft to force users to use Edge, a browser that is still struggling to compete with rivals such as Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome.
Interestingly, Microsoft forced Windows phone users to stop using the Reader app way back in 2016.
How do you read pdf files on your Windows 10 device? Let us know in the comments below.
