PDF-xchange Viewer add-on missing in IE11

[VanguardLH]

PDF-Xchange Viewer 2.5
Windows 7 SP-1
Internet Explorer 11

In the long past, I could click on a .pdf link in a web page and a new tab would open in IE showing the PDF document. I trialed some other PDF viewers but came back to PDF-Xchange Viewer (not the latest version due to missing features and unwanted behaviors). Sometime after that, I lost the ability to view PDFs inside the web browser. The option is enabled in PDF-Xchange Viewer but instead I have to save the .pdf to the hard disk and then open the file from there.

I went into "Manage add-ons" for IE, selected to view all of them, and PDF-XChange is no longer listed. I remember it was listed in the past. No toggling of options in PDF-Xchange Viewer will get it to show up as an add-on or extension in the add-ons list in IE. If the plug-in for PDF-Xchange Viewer isn't listed as installed and enabled in IE then how could it work from within IE?

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi VanguardLH,

Thanks for the post - please make sure that, under Tools --> Internet Options --> Security, protected mode is turned off.

Also, please make sure that any other PDF Reader plugins are disabled, and that the option to display PDF's in browser is turned on, within Edit --> Preferences --> File Associations in the Viewer.

If none of that helps, please go to Help --> About and advise on the specific build being used.

Cheers,

[VanguardLH]

As to disabling Protected Mode in Internet Explorer, no thanks. Either the plug-in for PDF-xchange Viewer will remain unusable rather than reduce security for just this one program or I'll trial other PDF viewers to see which incorporate better into IE11. I'm not wrapping the entire OS and other apps around the needs for one utility program. If I disable UAC then Protected Mode in IE also gets disabled. I'm not disabling UAC, either.

There are no other PDF apps installed. I also checked the .pdf filetype and MIME associations and they do point at PDF-xchange Viewer as the handler.

The problem is when a PDF is not directly linked to in a web page. If a link goes to a .pdf file then it will open inside of IE11 (in a new tab). That is due to the MIME handler defined for PDF pointing to PDF-xchange Viewer as the handler. It is when a server-side script goes to find the file (like an .ashx script) and then delivers it and the web browser opens its dialog asking where to save the .pdf file that got delivered by the server script. As I recall in the past, I could click on the Open button and the .pdf would open in an external instance of PDF-Xchange Viewer. However, without the availability of the add-on, PDF-Xchange Viewer won't open the .pdf content. Instead I have to use Save in the download infobar to store the .pdf file on the disk and then open from there (based on the filetype association). Links that point directly at .pdf files at a site will work due to the MIME type definition. So I figure the lack of the add-on is why I lost the handling of .pdf content delivered via server-side script, and there are a lot of sites that don't want you knowing their file storage pathing or they want a script to find the file because its path can change without direct intervention by the web author.

Protected Mode was introduced back in IE7 circa 2006 but requires UAC (since Windows Vista) to implement it. Seems odd that Tracker hasn't figured out how other add-ons manage to remain listed and enabled in IE7, and later, with Protected Mode enabled in the 7+ years hence. Microsoft has implemented the UAC and Protected Mode security paradigms since the introduction of Vista. Tracker needs to catch up. VideoLan figured it out for their VLC product. Adobe figured it out for their Shockwave (Flash) control. Fiddler2 figured it out. I've had other products that claim they will not function unless I reduce security. Didn't happen. They got discarded and substitutes were found. I have to wonder when PDF-Xchange Viewer would no longer work with IE's Protected Mode because it's been a few months when I noticed the .pdf handling behavior changed in IE with PDF-Xchange Viewer, not back 7 years ago.

Besides Protected Mode preventing sites from installing software, and as I recall, didn't it also prompt you when a site wanted to run an ActiveX control? At the prompt, you can choose to run or block the program the site was trying to call. If you allowed the AX control to run, there was a "Do not show me the warning for this program again" option. I've seen this happen when sites want to run some MS Word control to display a document there. I get to choose if the control is ran or not. I take it that at some point that PDF-xchange Viewer no longer triggered that prompt; however, if the plug-in isn't even listed as available (and enabled) in IE's Manage Add-ons list then it's not a surprise that I don't get that Protected Mode prompt anymore.

I suppose I could configure PDF-xchange Viewer to not display PDFs inside the web browser to see if it will handle both direct links with paths to .pdf files at a site along with server-side scripts that deliver the .pdf file but not with a direct link. I would then have PDF-xchange Viewer always opening as an external application to view PDF documents.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi VanguardLH,

I've actually just tested this here, in IE 11, with both the Editor and the Viewer and both View PDF's in browser with Protected mode enabled. There were known issues with the plugins not activating, in older builds, so please go to Help --> About and advise on the build that you're using.

Cheers,

[VanguardLH]

Internet Explorer 11
Version: 11.0.9600.17107
Update versions: 11.0.8

I uninstalled PDF-xchange Viewer and installed Adobe Reader 11 (11.0.07). Their plug-in is listed in Tools -> Manage add-ons -> Toolbars and Extensions, all add-ons (versus PDF-xchange viewer that was absent).

If a link in a web page points at a .pdf file (i.e., a direct file link) then the PDF would open inside the web browser. It was when the link pointed at a server-side script that located the file and sent its content that the "Open" action in the download infobar would not work (clicking on it did nothing) so I had to save the file to disk and open it from there.

Alas, after replacing PDF-xchange Viewer with Adobe Reader, the Open button only sometimes works in the download infobar. Sometimes the indirect link to the PDF will work with the Open button (the PDF opens in the web browser) but sometimes the Open button still does nothing. Perhaps an update to IE causes this disabling of the Open button or maybe it was the install of Microsoft's EMET (Enhanced Migration Experience Toolkit) to enhance security (for IE and other apps) that caused the problem. Disabling Avast doesn't change if and when the Open button will work.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi VanguardLH,

Thanks for that, however, I also need the build of the Viewer that you're running.

Also, it may be worth noting that the Viewer has been replaced by the Editor and that only a very few critical changes are currently being made to it, if any at all. I would strongly recommend that you try the Editor to see if that solves your issue:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFXVE5.zip

Cheers,

[VanguardLH]

The version of PDF-xchange Viewer is noted in the first post (2.5). I only have a single PDF viewer app installed at a time. When I went to test Adobe's latest Reader, PDF-Xchange Viewer got uninstalled, so I only know the version number. I did keep PDF-xchange Viewer up to date so whatever was the last released build for v2.5 is what I had.

I trialed the Editor awhile back but didn't like some of its behavior. PDF-xchange Viewer lets you disable the "Pro" features in the free version. That way, you aren't misled into thinking a feature is available only to find out after wading through the menus and dialogs that when it is about to commit the feature that you get a warning it is a Demo feature and using it will watermark your document. With PDF-Xchange Viewer, I can disable those adware lures in the program. As I recall, that was not possible in the Editor product. If Google had not destroyed the ability to search their Usenet archive, I'd go find my prior review to see what else about the Editor that I didn't like.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi VanguardLH,

What I need is the build number, which is the number next to the Version, in the Help --> About dialogue. I'm afraid that the Version number doesn't really help, as there were almost 30 builds released for the lifetime of Version 2.5.

With regards to Adobe uninstalling the Viewer, that shouldn't be possible at all, Adobe shouldn't be able to touch an installation of another company's software and, I have to say, I've never seen it do that. It's likely that Adobe simply took a hold of the file associations. I suspect that, if you search Viewer in the Windows Start bar, you will still see the Viewer installed.

The ability to hide Pro features has already been implemented in the Editor, so it sounds like you may have been using an older build. I'd suggest downloading and trying the latest (link below). Do please be aware that the Editor tends to change fairly dramatically, from build to build, as we're constantly implementing new features, fixes and workarounds, more so than the later builds of the Viewer as the Editor is still a fairly new product.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFXVE5.zip

As I said previously, the Viewer has been replaced by the Editor and it should be considered to be unsupported and it should also be assumed that no further changes will take place; those that do are simply a bonus.

Cheers,

[VanguardLH]

Would the behavior of the product, like it showing in the Add-Ons list in IE in Protected Mode, have been subject to a sub-minor version? The saved download was given the filename of "PDFXVwer_2.5.214.2_install.exe". I typically capture the version number from the site to include it in the download filename (so I know which version got downloaded). Isn't the build version included in that string?

Adobe didn't uninstall PDF-Xchange Viewer. "I only have a single PDF viewer app installed at a time" (emphasis on "I"). I don't want to run into conflicts or who gets assigned as the MIME type and filetype association handlers. There's enough work to trial a product without running a mixed environ of multiple same-function utilities. It was my choice to uninstall PDF-xchange Viewer before trialing Adobe's Reader. Tis a pity that Symantec decided to destroy usability and accessibility of the free Altiris SVS utility for software virtualization.

Thanks for the update on the ability to hide the "Pro" demo features in the Editor product. I don't mind a little bit of adware in a free product. I use Avast Free but it doesn't lead me to using functions that later are declared demo-only. Good to know that went away and I can hide the Pro-only demo features in the free version.

Has there been any testing of your Editor product against Microsoft's EMET (Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit)? Since deploying EMET, I've run across a couple products that won't work anymore. I recently had to get rid of AddInTools' Classic Menu )for Office 2010 because Word would hang when trying to load that add-on and with EMET controlling privileges on Word.

[VanguardLH]

I trialed the Adobe Reader XI (11) PDF app. It's okay but I miss some features from PDF-xchange Viewer. I uninstalled Adobe Reader, used their cleanup tool, and checked for any file and registry remnants. I then installed the latest available released version of PDF-xchange Editor (5.5.308.1).

Adobe Reader XI was a bit more stable in IE11 regarding the opening of PDFs whether they were for direct URL links to the .pdf file or supplied by a content download via a server-side script to find the file; however, I still ran into the problem that clicking on a link that went to a server-side script to deliver the file resulted in IE11's Open button in its download infobar to not work most of the time.

Adobe Reader showed up in IE11's add-ons list. Although PDF-xchange Editor works better with both direct file links and with server-side scripts delivering the file content, it still does not show up in the add-ons list in IE11. Yet when I click the Open button in the download infobar, PDF-xchange Editor opens up with the PDF download shown inside of it. Working on a link that points directly to the .pdf file works in either product and is the simplest method to retrieve a PDF document from a site. PDF-xchange Editor works better than Adobe Reader or PDF-xchange Viewer in that the Open button works despite the uneasy situation that it is a hidden plug-in.

The first config I did in PDF-xchange Editor was to hide the Pro "demo" features in the free version. Thanks for adding that. It also looks like I also no longer have to maintain 2 sets of configurations: one for the program and another for the plug-in. In PDF-xchange Viewer, and when showing a PDF inside the web browser, I had to go to its Preferences dialog to configure the settings for that instance of PDF-xchange Viewer (which, at first, mismatched those already set for Preferences in the main/external program). Thanks for that, too. Thanks again for not severely changing the UI in the Editor versus the one that I was used to in the Viewer.

So PDF-Xchange Editor resolved the problems for which this thread was started.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Thanks for the update Vanguard - much appreciated