IE 11 Internet Explorer left nav button active on opening a PDF file ?

From IE's perspective, the PDF file is just another "web page" to be displayed.  The back and forward navigation buttons are always active, and take you back to the last "page" you visited before the PDF was viewed.

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thanks, is it documented somewhere, I need it to show to my team who is trying to fix a problem on web page displaying a pdf.

this happens if the pdf file does not open in a new tab!

How to Open Hyperlinks in a New Browser Tab or Window
The short answer is: just add a target="_blank" attribute to your links (anchor tags).

For example, if you have a link that says the following:

<a href="https://www.thesitewizard.com/">thesitewizard.com</a>

Change the above so that it now says:

<a href="https://www.thesitewizard.com/" target="_blank">thesitewizard.com</a>

Now when your visitors click that link, it will open in a new window or tab (depending on which web browser they are using and how they configured that browser).

we are using the target_blank to open the PDF in a new Tab.

sorry ...ahref target_blank opens a new webpage xxx.cfm which  generates a pdf and displays to screen.

even if i am directly calling the pdf file from href  and target blank , it is opening with an active back arrow ;(

@Bill, Interestingly it doesn't have an active back button when a html page is displayed.