WARNING 20225 - PDF Port and Printer

[Guest]

I recently bought a new computer and installed Adobe Acrobat 7.0 on it.  (Previously I had this software on my older computer where it worked just fine and sufficed for my needs.)

When I installed this on my new computer, I got the following error message: "Warning 20225.  Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Setup was unable to create a new item: Adobe PDF Port and Printer.  The Adobe PDF may be unavailable."

Sure enough, it is indeed "unavailable."

How do I fix this problem?

[try67 · Accepted solution]

I'm assuming your new computer came with Windows 7. If that's the case, your

version of Acrobat is not compatible with your OS (far from it, actually),

and you should upgrade to the latest version, Acrobat X.

[Guest]

Thanks so much for your reply. I was afraid that might be the case.

Acrobat X is just so darn pricey.

Oh, well...

Thanks, again!

[try67]

You're lucky, though, because your product is eligible for an upgrade, which

is cheaper than buying the full product.

[Guest]

I wondered about that. I’ve checked the web site, but I just cannot find anything there about whether or not I am eligible to upgrade to a higher version.

[try67]

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/buying-guide.displayTab3.html

[Guest]

You’ve have been extremely helpful. Thank you so much!

[Bill12]

In the meantime, you can change your PDF Printer to print to file rather than the Adobe PDF port. You then have to open the file in Distiller to create the PDF. You may be able to use watched folders with Distiller to automate the process. I have been able to create PDFs with AA5 on Win 7 this way. On this machine I am running AA9 and so I don't have the problem, but it worked for my netbook with Windows Starter.

[Guest]

Thanks so much for your response, Bill – I’m VERY interested in what you have to say.

Tell me more about how to change my PDF Printer to “print to file.”

[Bill12]

Open Start>Printers and right click on the Adobe PDF printer and select the properties. Under the port listing you should see it trying to use the Adobe PDF Port. Simply change that to File (Print to file). You may have to play a bit to configure this method, but it is a a work around. The PDF Maker may even work this way, but I have not tried that. You would have to then open the file in Distiller to create the PDF. You might be able to use a watched folder to automate the conversion a bit more, but all will require some trial and error. Do not be surprised if things do not work or seem messed up, that is the nature of trying to use backdoor methods like this. The alternative as suggested is to upgrade and AA X may be the last upgrade you will qualify for with AA7. Of course, the next version if probably 1.5 years down the road. If you can afford it at some point, I would suggest the upgrade and not continue the workaround, even if you can get it to work.

The workarounds depend on taking out of the loop the various parts of the system that are so OS dependent. AcroTray is one of those components for the print process. PDF Maker is the other big one that is so dependent on how MS wrote OFFICE. I find it interesting that some folks complain about Acrobat not working with OFFICE and then go to a 3rd party to get the same result they would have gotten with Acrobat if they had simply printed to the Adobe PDF printer, but no they insisted PDF Maker. PDF Maker did not work and so they moved on without asking the basic question of printing.

In any case, good luck. I am just running on and need to quit -- get some work done.

[Guest]

Bill, you have also been enormously helpful, and I appreciate it very much. I tried to do as you suggested, but I don’t even have a PDF Printer listed as one of my printer options! Looks like I’m going to have to upgrade to Adobe Acrobat X or wait until PDF Complete is able to do as much as AA and then buy that software (if it’s any cheaper).

[Bill12]

It may be one of those things that does not work for AA7, but does for AA5. Strange, but that is what happens. Enjoy the upgrade since I guess that is where you are headed.