Linux/Wine PDF-XChange Editor crashes

[Don_Pedro]

I am using PDF-XChange Editor version 10.3.1.387 (creation date 17 June 2024) on a Linux Mint Cinnamon (v. 22.2) system, Wine Version 10.0, 32-bit environment. Linux Mint and Wine are the latest stable versions available. I'll explain later why I cannot use the latest PDF-XChange Editor version.

I know that PDF-XChange Editor isn't offically supported for Linux systems. Nevertheless, I've been using it on Linux/Wine without issues for a number of years. But now I'm running into strange problems with the latest versions. I can see from the forum that there are other Linux users who may have similar problems.

Sometimes the program freezes after I’ve been using it for a while, and I cannot close the program window any more. There is no specific error message. I have to abort the program by force in the process manager. This is true for version 10.3.1.387 also.

Problems with more recent versions (for example with the latest version 10.7.3.401) are even greater. I can install the program, but if I open a file the program crashes with a long error message shortly after I start scrolling. This issue showed up with all versions since 10.4.0.388 (creation date 9 September 2024) that I tested.

Have there been any significant changes in the program in version 10.4 that may have caused this problem? For example, does it require a more recent version of some Microsoft DLL or auxiliary program that may not be present in my Wine installation?

You only state that all current MS Windows operating systems are supported. Is there a list available of all Windows auxiliary programs/versions (.NET or else) that are required for a proper operation and have to be present in the Wine environment? Sorry if this question sounds naive, but I've stopped using Windows and have switched to Linux many years ago, so I'm no longer familiar with Windows.

Thank you.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, Don_Pedro

I cannot speak to the earlier crashes, but I can confirm that 10.7 included a notable change to a few feature areas, and we now require that you have specifically installed the following Microsoft VCRedist for your system type. This is supposed to be included and run by our latest installer (10.7.3.401), but I cannot be certain the method used to call that installation is compatible with linux, and there have been occasional windows systems that are known to ignore this call and need manual installation of the VCRedist anyway.

If your version of linux supports it (sadly I am not even remotely an expert on linux systems), you can download and run the windows VCRedist installers available here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/w ... w=msvc-170

Sadly if this package is not compatible with your system running our software may no longer be possible in your environment..

Kind regards,

[Don_Pedro]

Thanks for your help. You probably mean the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable.

It seems I had the right idea – certain Microsoft DLLs required for the proper operation of PDF-XChange Editor were missing in the wine environment.

I installed the latest available versions of MS Visual C++ and MS .NET in a 32-bit wine environment:
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x86) - version 14.44.35211.0
Microsoft Windows .NET Desktop Runtime (x86) - version 9.0.7.35017

(Additionally, MS .NET Framework 2.0 was already installed.)

I downloaded, installed and tested the most recent version of PDF-XChange Editor (10.7.3.401). So far there are absolutely no issues with this installation. Amazing!

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For those who may have a similar problem with Linux/wine:
The easiest way to install the MS libraries is through winetricks. Get the most recent version from
https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Winetricks
Winetricks versions in the Linux distribution are often outdated. If you already have winetricks, you can update it with
winetricks --self-update

Choose to install a MS DLL, and select the following modules for installation in a 32-bit wine environment:
vcrun2022 (2022)
dotnetdesktop9 (2024)

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]