The two programs I use for this area of trouble, usually to un-associate a program I've accidentally used forgetting to uncheck the, annoyingly, Windows checked by default 'make default' tick box rather than what is described here as being the problem are:-
https://defaultprogramseditor.com/
and
https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Unassoc.shtml
I was thinking that you could try to un-associate everything already associated with opening a .pdf then with that clean slate trying to associate the program wanted. I find it a bit unusual that a 'proper' PDF viewer like Adobe Reader, Sumatra or Foxit are not amongst the options as usually, arrogantly, Adobe will assign itself by default to open any .pdf file type. So even if you use something else you'd expect to see it in the list.
Whether these programs will help in this case I do not know but they're useful tools to have particularly as they both work with XP and Win7.