PDF XChange Forum

Hi.

I’m evaluating and testing PDF-XChange PRO 2012 (bought a single-user license) for our company.
I have used the full-installation on a Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 Terminal Server with Citrix.
We use PDF-Xchange PRO 2012 (5.0.270.0), Office 2003 SP3, AVG2012 and Res Powerfuse 2010.

When I launch Word 2003, the add-in works fine. Toolbar is visible and working.
When I launch Excel or Powerpoint 2003 the add-in is not working, and I dont get any errors about it failing to load. The toolbar is not visible.
Manually enabling the toolbar gives only one (not working) button in the toolbar. After a restart of Excel or Powerpoint the (one-button) toolbar is gone again.

When we launch mmc.exe or PDF viewer or PDF-editor prior to the launch of Excel/Powerpoint the toolbar will work in 95% of the cases. In the other 5% the toolbar fails in the second of third launch of Excel/Powerpoint.

Strange behaviour….

I checked security settings in office, all OK.
I tried the EXE installer and the MSI installer, both the same result.
Citrix install done with ‘change user /install’ of course.
Searched all related topics, found one, about excel toolbar en mmc.exe,
but that topic had no answer at all.

Any help appreciated.
Steven.

Hello Steven Degeling,

Welcome to our forums. I've checked with my colleagues from the dev team and we will need to set up a similar test system and try to reproduce this behaviour. We will post back here when we've had a chance to test.

Regards,
Stefan

Ok, thanks Stefan.
We will wait for you reply.
Meanwhile I will do further testing and try to diagnost the problem..

Hi Steven,

I'm going to set up a Terminal Server for this test and I just want to clarify something. You said your system is :

Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 Terminal Server with Citrix.

Now I already have a Server 2008 R2 Terminal Server set up, I also have a 2003 Ent (not a TS). It's the R2 that has me confused. Is this a 32 bit 2003 with SP2 (I think this is right) and for sure not a 2008 R2?

I have just never heard of a 2003 R2 and want to make sure I'm setting up the right OS.

please and thanks.

Yes, Paul, it is right. See the screenshots in the attachment.

Thanks for that Steven,

I have learned something today. I had honestly never seen a W2K3 R2. Finally - I see you have 16GB RAM so I'm assuming this is a 64 bit OS? I couldn't tell from the screen shots.

If so I'll go see if I can get a 64 bit W2K3 R2 ISO to set this up on.

thnx

Paul, it's a 32 bit OS version.

Thanks - OK - starting over...

Paul,

we did a new installation with the following command-lines:
start /wait msiexec /i PDFXC5Pro_x86.msi ADDLOCAL="F_Drivers,F_Office2PDF,F_OfficeAddin,F_Help_Drv,F_Wizard,F_Help_Wiz,F_Langs_Wiz,F_Viewer,F_Help_Viewer,F_Langs_Viewer,F_ShellExt,F_OCR_Viewer" KEY="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" /qb!

start /wait msiexec /i PDFXVE3.x86.msi ADDLOCAL="F_Viewer,F_Plugins,F_Plugin_SP,F_OCRPlugin,F_VLangs" KEY="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" /qb!

Started proces monitor as administrator.
Started Excel.exe as a common user, still no toolbar is loaded. same behaviour.

We have include de proces monitor logfile in this post.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for that Steven,

I still need to get this reproduced here. It would also be helpful if you can log your install using /lv!*x c:<installerFileName>.msi.log and post it here.

Please and thanks.

Sorry to come into between, but can it be that the PDF-XChange add-in is actually disabled or deactivated in Excel 2003 ?
Please read this article to activate or re-enable the add-in:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... s.90).aspx

Maybe it would also be good to verify the "load behaviour" of the add-in the Windows Registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\PXCOfficeAddin4.Addin]
"LoadBehavior"=dword:00000003

(Should be similar for PDF-XChange version 5 ?)

Thanks for that Willy,

my understanding was that Steven had already tried re-enabling the Addin and that it produced the Toolbar Icon but that it didn't work and also was gone again after use:

When I launch Excel or Powerpoint 2003 the add-in is not working, and I dont get any errors about it failing to load. The toolbar is not visible.
Manually enabling the toolbar gives only one (not working) button in the toolbar. After a restart of Excel or Powerpoint the (one-button) toolbar is gone again.

Perhaps you can confirm/deny this Steven?

Meanwhile I will continue the set up of the Test Terminal Server and await Steven's install log.

Paul - Tracker Supp wrote:Thanks for that Willy,

my understanding was that Steven had already tried re-enabling the Addin and that it produced the Toolbar Icon but that it didn't work and also was gone again after use:

When I launch Excel or Powerpoint 2003 the add-in is not working, and I dont get any errors about it failing to load. The toolbar is not visible.
Manually enabling the toolbar gives only one (not working) button in the toolbar. After a restart of Excel or Powerpoint the (one-button) toolbar is gone again.

Perhaps you can confirm/deny this Steven?

Meanwhile I will continue the set up of the Test Terminal Server and await Steven's install log.

Paul,

confirmed.
LoadBehavior"=dword:00000003
installation logs included
Steven

Thanks for that Steven,

shouldn't be much longer now. Your patience is appreciated.

Tracker Support,

Is there any progress and/or status update?

Steven

Hi Steven,

Paul is on holiday this and next week, so it might take a bit longer to investigate this, but I will try to see if he managed to finish the set up of the test environment and if we can do any tests while he is away.

Regards,
Stefan

Hello everybody,

the PDF plugin, which seems to work fine in Word and Excel 2007, keeps having problem and being de-activated in Powerpoint.

Re-activation or re-installation doesn't help. Most of the time, this leads to a Powerpoint crash at startup.

Configuration

Windows XP Pro SP3 / PowerPoint 2007 SP2 / PDF X-Change 5.0 Office COM Plugin

Workaround is possible with PDF Printer but a bit frustrating. So I would appreciate if anybody had a solution for the plugin anyway...

Hello pbourdet,

Could you please confirm that you are using build 5.0.271 of the drivers (and office plug-in) on the affected machine?

Regards,
Stefan

Thanks Stefan for this quick answer.

The Office plug-in version is 5.0.271.0, but the printer driver version is 5.0.267.0 (see attached screenshots).

Is that the driver you are talking about ?

Best regards

Philippe Bourdet

Hi Philippe,

Thanks - then this version mismatch could be causing your troubles.
Please do a full uninstall of all our products from the affected machine,
reboot,
remove any folders left in "C\:Program Files\Tracker Software" after the uninstall and reboot
And then try installing the latest build from here:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/downloads
And this should resolve the problem.

Regards,
Stefan

Stefan,

I did the re-installation according to your recommendations. Office Plug-in and printer driver versions are now in sync.

I re-activited the Plug-in in PowerPoint 2007, and crossed finger hoping it does not crask again.

If you don't get any further news, please consider this is good news :=)

Thanks for the help.

Best regards.

Philippe Bourdet

Hi Philippe,

Glad to hear it's stable and working for now!

Cheers,
Stefan

Stefan,

I did the re-installation according to your recommendations. Office Plug-in and printer driver versions are now in sync.

The problem is still here...

do you have any suggestions?

Steven Degeling

HI Steven,

our devs have been trying to reproduce this, so far without success. They will continue to investigate this and look for a fix.

I have made an internal report for our development team to investigate and resolve as soon as possible. The ticket number for future reference is : RT#2013: Excel / Powerpoint addin not working

We appreciate your patience and understanding whilst this is being investigated.

One little chance to make it work ...

Verify security settings in Excel 2003 and PowerPoint 2003 via
> Tools-menu > Options > Security-tab > Macro Security-button > Trusted Publishers-tab
> check (= activate) "Trust all installed add-ins and templates"
(if it is not checked, you will not see the PDF-XChange toolbar)
Confirm by clicking OK + OK

Finally click File-menu > Exit and restart Excel/PowerPoint.

Thanks Willy,

we will certainly be taking that into consideration, Steven, does the suggestion Willy made effect any change in the behaviour you are seeing?

Paul,


I have checked the options as suggested, there were already right.
See the attached file.
So, still no change in the behaviour.

Steven

Hi Steven,

I just spoke with one of the Office Add-in developers and he told me the following:

Our addin for PowerPoint/Excel uses the clipboard to create the toolbar. So it looks like there is a problem with it on the affected machine with Citrix. Maybe some clipboard configuration would help:
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX086028

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=840872

So please do try it and let us know how it goes.

Regards,
Stefan