How do I DISABLE PDF-XChange add-on for Internet Explorer?

[kenb]

Hello Experts,

Internet Explorer uses PDF-XChange to view PDFs. I want to DISABLE (stop) Internet Explorer from using PDF-XChange. However, I cannot do so.

I should be able to go to Internet Explorer's "Tools" / "Manage Add-ons" and select "All add-ons" and see Tracker Software Products (just like what is shown in another Forum posting) and change those Add-ons to "disabled".

However, I do not see ANY entries for Tracker Software Products.

I do see Adobe Systems Add-ons and even with these are ENABLED, PDF-XChange is still used by Internet Explorer

In effect the "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons are ENABLED, though completely invisible in the "Manage Add-ons", and over-ride the "enabled" Adobe add-ons, and this behaviour cannot be changed.

I do NOT have this problem with Firefox

Any assistance would be most welcome.

Other info:
Windows 7, 64 bit
Adobe Acrobat XI - set to be the default file handler for .pdf files
PDF-XChange Pro 6.0 (Build 322.7)
Internet Explorer (version 11.0.9600.18314)

ps: Let me add that I really like PDF-XChange and use it for a lot of things- and even find it does a superior job of certain things (converting long URLs in Word to links in a PDF, annotations) but for reasons of our document management system I have to set Adobe Acrobat as the default.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Removing the following key via Windows Registry should resolve your problem:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\MIMEAssociations\application/pdf

More information:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/forum3 ... 62&t=29309

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Ken,

you can grab the Adobe GUID from the "ENU_GUID" key here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\Installer

and put it in here:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/pdf]
"Extension"=".pdf"
"CLSID"="{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-AC0F074E4100}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/pdf]
"CLSID"="{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-AC0F074E4100}"
"Extension"=".pdf"

If you save the above as a .reg file you can just run it. I put the Adobe DC GUID in there from my installation. You may have a different GUID if you have a different Adobe Product. You should use the one in your version of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\Installer

hth

[kenb]

Removing the following key via Windows Registry should resolve your problem:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Associations\MIMEAssociations\application/pdf

More information:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/forum3 ... 62&t=29309

Thanks - BUT that had no effect whatsoever... same behaviour.

I think what I really need to find out is how to make "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons appear in the Inernet Explorer's "Manage Add-ons" list. Then, I assume, I can disable/enable as I see fit.

Any hints on that one?

[kenb]

Hi Ken,

you can grab the Adobe GUID from the "ENU_GUID" key here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\Installer

and put it in here:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/pdf]
"Extension"=".pdf"
"CLSID"="{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-AC0F074E4100}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/pdf]
"CLSID"="{AC76BA86-7AD7-1033-7B44-AC0F074E4100}"
"Extension"=".pdf"

If you save the above as a .reg file you can just run it. I put the Adobe DC GUID in there from my installation. You may have a different GUID if you have a different Adobe Product. You should use the one in your version of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\Installer

hth

Thanks for that reply.

I use Adobe Acrobat XI Pro and NOT Acrobat Reader, which your recommendation relies upon, so that won't work for me.

(Although I specify Acrobat XI in the list at the end of my post, I ought to have been clearer and said up-front "Adobe Acrobat XI Pro").

As I mentioned in reply to Willy Van Nuffel above, I think what I really need to find out is how to make "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons appear in the Inernet Explorer's "Manage Add-ons" list. Then, I assume, I can disable/enable as I see fit.

Any hints on that one?

[kenb]

I have taken these additional steps - and without success as PDF-XChange remains the internal viewer used by Internet Explorer (IE)

1) Removed Internet Explorer and then put it back (Windows Features)
Result: Fire up IE and go to the same URL for a PDF - behaviour same as before, PDF loads in PDF-XChange add-on inside IE

2) Uninstalled PDF-XChange Pro
Result: Fire up IE, Get a message that Windows can't open the file (pdf), which is to be expected I suppose, and select the option "Select a program from a list of installed programs" and pick Acrobat XI Pro. The PDF now loads in Acrobat XI Pro, as expected, and not inside the browser. Some progress.

3) Grab current 64bit msi installer of PDF-XChange Pro, do a custom install and uncheck ALL options except "Create Start menu folder".
Result: Fire up IE and look at Add-ons and now in the list I see "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons and both are labelled "New". Go to the same URL for a PDF and the original behaviour is back - the PDF loads in the PDF-XChnage add-on inside IE.

4) Go back to manage add-ons and DISABLE "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons.
Result: Go to Go to the same URL for a PDF and the original behaviour is unchanged - the PDF loads in the PDF-XChange add-on inside IE.

Result: Very frustrating.... user is losing more hair than he can afford to....

Any hints would be most welcome....

[Willy Van Nuffel]

EDITED...

Do you also have Adobe Reader XI on your computer?

If yes, then:
- click Edit > Accessibility > Setup Assistant...
- click Next until screen 5 of 5
- can you activate the check box "Display PDF documents in the web browser" or is it grayed out ?

I do not know if the above menu is the same for Adobe Acrobat XI. If yes, then you can also check there.

I am almost convinced that it has something to do with a particular registry key, but I do not have a 64-bit system to do some tests to verify if the keys are similar to those for 32-bit. In one of the related posts there was someone with a 64-bit windows that confirmed that the removal of the key - mentioned here above - did work. Maybe restart your PC after removal of the registry key and then verify again if it works?

And also take care to first close IE11 before removing the registry key.

[kenb]

EDITED...

Do you also have Adobe Reader XI on your computer?

If yes, then:
- click Edit > Accessibility > Setup Assistant...
- click Next until screen 5 of 5
- can you activate the check box "Display PDF documents in the web browser" or is it grayed out ?

I do not know if the above menu is the same for Adobe Acrobat XI. If yes, then you can also check there.

I am almost convinced that it has something to do with a particular registry key, but I do not have a 64-bit system to do some tests to verify if the keys are similar to those for 32-bit. In one of the related posts there was someone with a 64-bit windows that confirmed that the removal of the key - mentioned here above - did work. Maybe restart your PC after removal of the registry key and then verify again if it works?

And also take care to first close IE11 before removing the registry key.

Thanks for your reply.

I do not have Adobe Reader XI on my system (It would be a bit redundant already having Acrobat XI Pro). It also appears that Accessibility options you describe for Reader are not available for Acrobat XI Pro.

I would tend to agree with you that the behaviour I am experiencing (and cannot control) is related to some Registry setting(s).

The good folks at Tracker Software, who of course wrote the application and therefore control how the application (and its install process) sets various Registry keys, ought to know exactly what keys to "tweak" or delete to stop IE from ALWAYS using PDF-XChange to display PDFs inside IE.

Something is clearly wrong here. You can also see inconsistent behaviour with Tracker's install. You can see that after the initial install "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons FAILED to appear in the IE's "Manage Add-ons" list. It was only AFTER uninstalling/reboot/re-installing PDF-XChange that "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons then appeared in the IE's "Manage Add-ons" list. Even so, changing the status to disabled had no effect at all. I've mentioned that I like PDF-XChange, but this particular behaviour and the inability to control/change it is most disappointing.

Clearly there is something amiss that is within Tracker's realm to rectify.

I would very much like to hear from Tracker Support experts on this matter and how to resolve this issue.

[kenb]

UPDATE September 20, 2017

This is directed to Tracker support and developers.

I have described above that no matter what I do PDF-XChange Pro remains the PDF viewer for Internet Explorer. Nothing alters this behaviour except uninstalling PDF-XChange.

You can see that I already did an uninstall/reinstall with no effect and the offending behaviour of PDF-XChange remains unchanged (save for the fact that on the reinstall the "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons that were previously not in the list then appeared in IE's "Manage Add-ons" and were set to "new" which I subsequently set to "disabled", again with no effect.)

I also tried the method Paul O'Rorke posted, using the Acrobat XI Pro ENU_GUID found in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\11.0\Installer
and manually putting it in the keys suggested by Paul. This had no effect.

Today I again uninstalled PDF-XChange and then, because the automated uninstall clearly does NOT remove all traces of PDF-XChange, I used brute force to remove directories and registry entries, including CCleaner and rebooting at appropriate moments.

Having satisfied myself that I removed what I could and that PDF-XChange was not on my system and not affecting IE, I attempted a "clean" install of PDF-XChange Pro 6 electing a custom install and unchecking ALL options except "Create Start menu folder".

It became obvious that I failed to completely clean the system of all remnants of PDF-XChange for two reasons: 1) the install discovered a valid license key which clearly was not cleaned off the system (this happened before but I forgot to report it), and 2) the "Tracker Software Products" Add-ons in IE's "Manage Add-ons" were set not to "new" as in the first uninstall/reinstall described yesterday, but to "disabled", the last state I had left them in before my attempt to clean the system of PDF-XChange.

On has to wonder why, when the custom installation option "Show PDF files in Browsers" was UNCHECKED, this was not respected by the installation and IE once again shows PDf files in the browser?

As an aside, there ought to be a means to automatically TOTALLY uninstall PDF-XChange and ALL data (directories, registry entries, etc.) such that any subsequent install is on a "clean" system that has no knowledge of any previous PDF-XChange installation.

At any rate, after the above described uninstall, brute force cleaning and "clean" install, the same offending behaviour of PDF-XChange irrevocably taking over IE for the display of PDFs returned.

I believe I have demonstrated that the problem I describe is not due to me somehow doing the wrong thing or being a naive user. I do have to admit that there could be some weird quirk on my system that affect how IE and PDF-XChange behave, but I am not expert enough, nor have the resources/tools, to determine what that might be.

I suppose that if I have to live with this offending behaviour of PDF-XChange and IE in order to reap the considerable other benefits of PDF-XChange I can do that.

Nevertheless, I believe there is something amiss and I appeal to Tracker support and development to address this and also to get back to us in this forum.

Thanks

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Ken,

this is definitely a strange case. Would yo be amenable to us taking a look remotely?

If so, take a look at this page https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowle ... e-an-issue and let us know the connection details at support@pdf-xchange.com and we will see what we can find out for you.

hth

[kenb]

Hi Ken,

this is definitely a strange case. Would yo be amenable to us taking a look remotely?

If so, take a look at this page https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowle ... e-an-issue and let us know the connection details at support@pdf-xchange.com and we will see what we can find out for you.

hth

I just had a remote session with Tracker folks and there was a key to delete that then had the desired effect.

If I may, I'll leave the reporting of the details (the "last word" as it were) to this forum to the good folks at Tracker (and that way it's bound to be "official").

Thanks!

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Ken did a remote session with us and indeed the appropriate key was not being deleted by the Editor.

After manually removing the key, the Editor's UI again began to function as expected and IE stopped using our Editor Plugin.
We are investigating how and why this happened, to see if we can take steps to prevent this happening again in the future and for other users.

[milliman]

Can Tracker Support confirm which key needed to be removed?

[Patrick-Tracker Supp]

Hello milliman,

Please go to regedit.exe and delete all of the following entries:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/pdf\CLSID

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/pdf\CLSID

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/pdf\CLSID

I hope this helps!