Microsoft, on its Microsoft 365 roadmap website, has released new details about the addition of Adobe's PDF rendering engine. Microsoft first began rolling these out to consumers in March 2023.
The entry was added yesterday, and the company says that the general availability rollout of the same will begin in October 2025, which is, coincidentally, perhaps, around the same time that Windows 10 and older Office versions (2015 and 2019) reach end of support. Microsoft writes:
Microsoft Edge: Built-in PDF reader powered by Adobe engine
Microsoft Edge will launch the new version of the built-in PDF reader that's powered by Adobe’s PDF rendering engine. The new PDF reader ensures that there's no loss of functionality and delivers an enhanced PDF experience. This experience includes richer rendering, improved performance, strong security for PDF handling, and greater accessibility.
Neowin also noticed that the company has also updated its blog post regarding the feature in February 2025 with this new information, although it seems like Microsoft was initially planning for a general availability rollout for September 2025, which has now slipped by a month to October.
Update:
To ensure a quality-driven deployment, the commercial rollout for embedding the Adobe Acrobat PDF engine into the Microsoft Edge built-in PDF reader has been moved to September 2025.
The legacy engine for the Microsoft Edge built-in PDF reader will be removed in early 2026.
Here's the previous version of the blog post describing the rollout and the removal of Edge's legacy built-in PDF solution. Microsoft had earlier said that the latter would happen in early 2025:
By powering the Microsoft Edge built-in PDF reader with the Adobe Acrobat PDF engine, users will receive a unique PDF experience that includes higher fidelity for more accurate colors and graphics, improved performance, strong security for PDF handling, and greater accessibility—including better text selection and read-aloud narration. These capabilities will continue to be free of cost.
Consumer (and unmanaged) users of Microsoft Edge will see this change immediately. This will roll out to organizations with managed devices over time, to allow time to test the updated experience and transition users. This rollout will follow a quality-driven-based approach, so milestone dates may changed as we receive feedback on testing... Ultimately, the legacy engine in the Microsoft Edge PDF solution is scheduled to be removed in 2025 (date to be updated ASAP). (Updated: August 8, 2024)
And here's the updated version:
... the legacy engine in the Microsoft Edge PDF solution is scheduled to be removed in early 2026. (Updated: February 25, 2025)
You can view the Microsoft 365 entry here under 489231 and the Tech Community blog post here.
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