PDF-XChange as Default printer - installation issue

[Maciej Tokarski]

Hello!
We're using the following parameters to install the PDF-XChange driver during the installation of our product:

PDFX4SA_sm.exe /VERYSILENT /COMPONENTS="pdfSaver,PDFXChangedriver" /NORESTART /PNAME="PDF-XChange 4.0-GUID"

It worked fine under Windows XP/Vista. Since we've been switching to Windows 7 recently, we faced new problem: the PDF printer installed along (there is no way to suppress the installation of one, is there?) is always made the default printer afterwards. It's REALLY bad and messes up with our software set-up. Is there anyway to suppress this behaviour? Is it a bug? Do we need an additional parameter when installing under Win7?

Regards,
Maciej

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello Maciej,

The default should be that our printer is NOT installed as the default system printer unless you specify it otherwise so I will ask the guys making the installers to check that.

Additionally you could use /DRVWOPRN to install the drivers only without an instance of the printer.

Best,
Stefan

[Maciej Tokarski]

Thank you for the prompt answer, we'll try it out during this week's integration build, I am going to drop here a line.
Regards!
Maciej

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Sure Maciej ,

Will await your comments!

Cheers,
Stefan

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Can you let us know the version of driver you are installing? And is the problem with Win7 reproduced on clean OS?

P.S. /DRVWOPRN parameter will not help. When it specified, printer driver will be installed, but no printer will be added to the printers list. I'm not sure it is what you want.

[Maciej Tokarski]

Hello,

1) the /DRVWOPRN is indeed what we needed - the default printer installed along was only creating confusion in our environment. Thanks again for the info!
2) Anyway, the problem with "default printer" persists, now affecting the temporary printer created for the lifetime of our app. In the last days I managed to gather some experiences from our testers. The situation is like follows: they always start working with an almost virgin image of Win7 x64. Some of them has already some office network printer configured and stored in the image itself (then it's set "default"), some of them have no printer configured, only the default "fax" and "XPS printer" are available then (then it's "XPS" which is default). In both cases, if you don't touch printer configuration at all, but just install your driver and then our application creates a temporary instance of PDF-Xcahnge at start-up, that temporary instance becomes automatically "default". Of course if you then close our up and the temporary printer is deleted, no windows printer is "default" any longer. But if you create any additional windows printer BEFORE installing PDF-XChange driver, then it will work fine - the temporary instance won't be made default.
Summary: the issue occurs only on Win7 x64, we couldn't reproduce it on any XP. It's easily reproducible if you have only the standard "fax" and "XPS" printer.

I hope the details give you some more idea. I could also gladly help you with debugging the issue on our machine, if you can't reproduce it - I have quite a lot of experience with WinDbg etc.
Regards,
Maciej

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

's easily reproducible if you have only the standard "fax" and "XPS" printer.

When you have just this printers installed, is any of them default ?

[Maciej Tokarski]

When you have just this printers installed, is any of them default ?

Yes, I have written it in my previous posting. There's always some default printer set before we install and use PDF-XChange. I have a kind of impression that Win7 tries to be "intelligent" at times, setting the new printer to default without asking the user. I doubt that your driver deliberately sets the temporary printer to default, I rather think the way an instance of your printer is created makes the Win7 think - "oh, you didn't tell me though, but you sure mean you want the printer to be default now". Something must have changed in Win7 because it worked without issues on XP/Vista.

Regards,
Maciej

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

Yes, as we see now, Windows API function AddPrinter makes new installed printer as default. We will investigate and try to find some workaround.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello Maciej,

The dev guys asked me to make a ticket for your case:
#1139: PDF-XChange as Default printer - installation issue
So that we could search for a solution to this problem.

We will post here when there are any news on the subject.

Best,
Stefan

[Maciej Tokarski]

Thank you!
Maciej

[Paul - Tracker Supp]