PDF viewers overview

[nikos]

I've reviewed the latest versions of the popular PDF readers, and how they integrate with xplorer2. Adobe DC goes from bad to worse, now nothing works, even the preview crashes xplorer2. Foxit reader is ok but doesn't offer text searches (in fact it maliciously deactivates the default PDF filter available in windows, more on that in a blog near you). PDF Xchange viewer remains the top performer and recommended tool, which works perfectly with xplorer2

if anyone is using some other popular reader and are happy with it, please let me know, especially if it is shell integrated, that is enables text searches in PDFs, and the Native preview tab in xplorer2 works

[Robert2]

How do I know which application is being used by the xplorer² native preview? PDFs display perfectly well here in Windows 10 Home x64, but there is no indication whatsoever as to which application is being used. Could be the latest Adobe Reader which is the default association, but it might very well be Microsoft Edge which tends to be very pushy… Looks like it could be Chrome Canary too...

[nikos]

usually it is whatever PDF tool you have installed. Or try regedit and follow this key:
.pdf\shellex\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}
as explained in this blog post www.zabkat.com/blog/25May08.htm (some extrapolation required )

[Robert2]

In Windows 10 x64, the registry editor is named “regedt32.exe”.
The “.pdf” Persistent Handler is “{1AA9BF05-9A97-48c1-BA28-D9DCE795E93C}”.
“HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{1AA9BF05-9A97-48c1-BA28-D9DCE795E93C}\PersistentAddinsRegistered” has “NULL” as default value.
The subkey is “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{1AA9BF05-9A97-48c1-BA28-D9DCE795E93C}\PersistentAddinsRegistered\{89BCB740-6119-101A-BCB7-00DD010655AF}”.
Its default value is “{6C337B26-3E38-4F98-813B-FBA18BAB64F5}”.
By default, it is the “Reader Search Handler”, with the following value:
“%systemroot%\system32\Windows.Data.Pdf.dll”
So my “Native” xplorer² Preview works fine and relies on the native Windows DLL.

[nikos]

ok, but that's the filter handler (that's why i said you must extrapolate). You must use .pdf\shellex\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f} as your starting point until you hit the DLL that does the native preview. Which adobe do you have installed?

[Robert2]

Note that I have “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf\ShellEx\{8895b1c6-b41f-4c1c-a562-0d564250836f}”, with default value: “{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}”
But there is no CLSID corresponding to “{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}”.

As I said, on my system, “{6C337B26-3E38-4F98-813B-FBA18BAB64F5}” is the “Object CLSID responsible for extracting text from PDF files”.
If I look under HKCR\CLSID, I get to “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{6C337B26-3E38-4F98-813B-FBA18BAB64F5}\InProcServer32”, which gives me “%systemroot%\system32\Windows.Data.Pdf.dll”. And nothing else! This might be because initially I did not associate PDF files with any application. However, if I double-click a PDF file in xplorer², it opens in DC. But the xplorer² native preview does not look like it might be DC. Or anything specific for that matter!

I have Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Version 2015.009.20079. It is supposed to be the latest available version.

[nikos]

that's weird about the registration and missing CLSID but you must have the adobe previewer handler inside xplorer2. Perhaps it works for windows 10 but when I tested on win8.1 it crashed xplorer2 all the time

[Robert2]

I was wrong about Microsoft Edge. It won’t open PDF files, at least not through drag & drop.
IE11 opens them and the previewer handler is definitely that of DC.
Firefox opens them but the handler is not that of DC.
Chrome standard and Chrome Canary both open PDFs and the display looks very much like the one I am getting in xplorer². It is not that of DC unless there is a minimalistic version of DC without any bells and whistles.

[Robert2]

It seems that Firefox is using “ PDF.js” to render PDFs. Here is from https://blog.oio.de/2014/04/11/integrat ... plication/:

PDF.js, mainly developed by Mozilla, provides a JavaScript library that makes it possible to render PDF files in a browser without using a browser plugin. This library does the rendering but isn’t responsible for providing any other functionality to the user like navigation, zoom levels or printing.

Additionally, there’s a complete viewer (implemented using html, CSS and JavaScript) that does the things mentioned above. A demonstration of this viewer is hosted on the project’s web page.

[Brig]

My previews of PDFs disappeared after I said OK to an Adobe Reader update. After a little research I uninstalled the Reader (no need for it when I have Acrobat) and installed an older version of iFilter, iFilter9. I can't remember where I found it, but it restored the previews.

Win7 Pro x64
x2 Ult

[longfellow]

if anyone is using some other popular reader and are happy with it, please let me know, especially if it is shell integrated, that is enables text searches in PDFs, and the Native preview tab in xplorer2 works

I've been using SumatraPDF for years now, and it works a treat with x2. Shell integration is optional during install. No problems with preview or searches.