Install option for display in browser not respected

[mathog]

Upgraded 54.0 to 190.0 today. Allowed the default option to install the browser plugins and then used

[X] set PDF-Xchange viewer as default
[ ] display in browser

These are multiuser machines. I personally dislike viewing PDF files in plugins, I would rather a separate application opened, but other people have the opposite preference.

The problem was, after the installation clicking on a PDF file in a browser brought up the plugin PDF viewer. The only way I could find to not display in the browser was to not install any of the browser plugins.

So...

1. please fix the installer to respect the "display in browser" selection
2. How does one toggle "display in browser" on a user by user basis? I mean, other than by using
something like the "add on" tools in Firefox to disable the plugin. Is there not a setting within PDF-Xchange viewer itself?

Thanks.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi mathog

the settings are stored on a per-user basis in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER. You should be able to have each user select his preference in Edit --> Preferences --> File Associations --> Display PDF in Browser.

When this is done on a Terminal Server it sets up the default preferences in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. When a user logs in and starts PDF-XChange it looks for settings in the registry under HKEY_CURRENVT_USER, if it finds none it copies them from LOCAL_MACHINE.

You mentioned that this is a multiuser environment, is this a Terminal server or Workstations with multiple users? Can you tell me the OS (XP/Vista/Win7/W2k3/W2k8/W2K8R2 etc) you are doing this on and as which user did you perform the installation? I am going to have to reproduce this in order to correct it so these details are quite important.

regards

[mathog]

You mentioned that this is a multiuser environment, is this a Terminal server or Workstations with multiple users? Can you tell me the OS (XP/Vista/Win7/W2k3/W2k8/W2K8R2 etc) you are doing this on and as which user did you perform the installation? I am going to have to reproduce this in order to correct it so these details are quite important.

Windows XP SP3
As Administrator, using the "Check for Updates" method from within the Viewer.

[mathog]

You should be able to have each user select his preference in Edit --> Preferences --> File Associations --> Display PDF in Browser.

No wonder I couldn't find it. The plugin has no "File Associations" option! It works as you describe from the standalone program.

Oops, I take that back, as a regular user the "Display PDF in Browser" box is NOT checked in the standalone program either, yet it does start when a PDF is clicked in the browser. (Both Firefox and Seamonkey). Looks like it isn't an installer bug but an application or plugin bug.

Thanks

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi again mathog,

that switch is a toggle and on occasion I have seen where is needed to be set a couple of times to take. There are command line arguments that can be called to force this:

Code: Select all

PDFXCview.exe /makeassoc:web=false&webonly=yes // disables plugins only, association for PDF-files not be changed

If you have no luck using the GUI to toggle this, try a few times before giving up, maybe it would be practical to have the users launch the Viewer from the command line once, or maybe a script?

[mathog]

Hi again mathog,

that switch is a toggle and on occasion I have seen where is needed to be set a couple of times to take. There are command line arguments that can be called to force this:

Code: Select all

PDFXCview.exe /makeassoc:web=false&webonly=yes // disables plugins only, association for PDF-files not be changed

If you have no luck using the GUI to toggle this, try a few times before giving up, maybe it would be practical to have the users launch the Viewer from the command line once, or maybe a script?

The GUI toggle is very strange. When I check it and click "OK" or "Apply" it pops up the "Run As" dialog with "Current User" checked. Strange, as of course the program is already running. Anyway, click OK. Exit and reenter application - and it is unchecked. Neither OK nor Apply will do anything when it is like that, and checking and unchecking doesn't change that.

Tried the command line as shown and it caused an error message:

'webonly' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

Leaving off the "&webonly=yes" did not trigger the error, and it did bring up the "Run As" dialog. However, the
browser is still opening the plugin. Tried it again and used the Administrator instead of local user, and that didn't stop the plugin from starting for the local user, nor for the Administrator account, when the browser was run under that.

What is the REGISTRY key? I will try modifying that directly and see if sticks that way.

Thanks.

[mathog]

Tried a bunch of combinations like:

Code: Select all

PDFXCview.exe /makeassoc:web=no
PDFXCview.exe /makeiassoc:web=yes

but no luck so far. Every clicked PDF link opens the browser plugin.

Page 20 of the manual is vague on the workings of makeiassoc. I assumed that it works like
makeassoc with a web parameter. If that switch invoked alone, with no "web=" is enough to turn on the plugin in the the browser, there is no documented

/makenoiassoc

to turn it off again.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi again mathog

I seem to be having issues doing this also in the current build. I will need to investigate this further, it may be a bug, but before going there I want to go over this with my dev team.

thanks for your patience...

[mathog]

I seem to be having issues doing this also in the current build. I will need to investigate this further, it may be a bug, but before going there I want to go over this with my dev team.

One of the text commands seems to have permanently set the check box in the GUI toggle. Before it was unset and nothing I could do in the GUI would cause it to stay set. Now it is set and nothing I do causes it to stay unset.

At least it is consistent in its obstinance!

[mathog]

Found work arounds in this thread (at the bottom):

https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/ ... =35&t=8897

For Firefox:

menu->tools->options->applications->PDF-XChange Viewer Doc. It was set to: Use PDF-XChange Viewer (in Browser). Change to use the standalone application.

For Seamonkey:

menu->Edit-> browser -> helper applications->application/PDF. Was set to "Always Ask", change to
"Use PDF-XChange Viewer".

IE seems to be working on its own now. Maybe the command line commands set that up properly. (I never use IE myself.)

Note that both Firefox and Seamonkey previous to the upgrade were opening the external application, so something about the upgrade made a mess of that.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Thanks mathog

very useful.

We have a Ticket for this investigation (internal only) RT#745: Install option for display in browser not respected

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi mathog,

I must apologize, I misunderstood how this works. I thought the 'Display in Browser' was per user. It seems that it is not.

The dev team have responded that:

Currently "Display in Browser" works in the same way for all users in a system.
In the new version (V3, V3+) we will try to implement this option per user individually: so, in the future(!) one user can set "Display in Browser"="true" and other user can set "Display in Browser"="false" on the same machine.

I've asked for confirmation on the Installer whether the Check Box to not display in Browser has been addressed. I'll get back when I have an answer.

thanks for your patience.