PDF iFilter 9 Not Working In Windows 7 x64

[Guest]

When I first started playing around with pdf ifilters over a month ago, I had Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard version 8.2.4 installed.  It is what shipped with my ScanSnap S510 that I bought about 1-1/2 years ago.  At some point, I read that for Win7 x64, I needed Adobe Reader 9, so I installed version 9.3.4.  Then I read, NO, don't install different versions at the same time.  AARRGGHH!

So, on Sept 10, I uninstalled both versions and only put back Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard version 8.2.4.  That is how I am set up now.  Here are the steps I took today.  Maybe someone can see either something I did wrong or find a step I missed.

1. Installed the Adobe ifilter - PDFFilter64installer.msi

2. Opened Indexing Options-->Advanced-->File Types and checked the pdf and pdfxml boxes (next to the pdf file type, it does say "PDF Filter")

3. Under, "How should this file be indexed?" I made sure "Index Properties and File Contents" was selected.

4. Opened System Properties-->Environment Variables and edited the Path Variable so it now contains - %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;%SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\Bluetooth Software\;C:\Program Files\ThinkPad\Bluetooth Software\syswow64;C:\Program Files\Intel\WiFi\bin\;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Intel\WirelessCommon\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Lenovo;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Ulead Systems\MPEG;C:\Program Files (x86)\Lenovo\Access Connections\;C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for 64-bit platforms\bin

5. Rebooted

6. Opened Indexing Options-->Advanced and clicked on the "Rebuild" button at which point it started indexing.

It indexed 39,705 files in about 30 minutes - not a good sign, too quick.  Of those, 4,365 are pdf files.  My pdf files are a mix of documents downloaded from company websites (like monthly statements), scanned and OCR'ed with my ScanSnap S510; scanned with an HP AIO and OCR'ed with the HP software; scanned on an HP AIO using Acrobat 8 Standard and OCR'ed with Acrobat 8 Standard.

I tried a test.  There are at least 28 pdf files, downloaded from 2 different financial websites, that contain the very unique last name of my financial advisor.  These are NOT scanned and OCR'ed paper pages.  I opened several of the files individually with Acrobat 8 Standard and made sure I could search & find his name within the documents - his name was found every time.  I closed the documents and Acrobat 8 Standard.  I clicked on the Windows Start button and typed his last name.  It found 9 Word documents, a whole bunch of email messages - and 1 stinking pdf file!?!

What is wrong?

Any & all ideas, thoughts & suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks!

[MichaelKazlow]

Acrobat 8.x is not Windows 7 compatible.

[Guest]

Well, I've been using Acrobat 8 for some time on Win7 without a problem, but I think that's beside the point.

When Win7 indexes the files on the PC, isn't it using the iFilter?  Acrobat isn't even open or running during indexing.

[Guest]

Well, I just got suckered

I went and paid Adobe a bunch of my money to upgrade to version 9.x and it still doesn't work!  So now what?

1. Uninstalled iFilter 9

2. Uninstalled Acrobat Standard 8.x

3. Rebooted

4. Installed Acrobat Standard 9.0

5. Next, installed iFilter 9 for 64-bit platforms following the update sequence listed here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=1&platform=Windows

6. Rebooted when prompted

7. Installed updates 9.1 through 9.3.4 rebooting after each update when prompted

8. Checked indexing options and verified that pdf & pdfxml file types were checked and the PDF Description said "PDF Filter" - both were OK

9. Verified that "Index Properties and File Contents was selected - it was

10. Clicked on Index Settings and clicked on the "Rebuild" button

11. Checked back some time later and the indexing was complete

12. Tried the Windows search I described in my opening post and it found zero (0) pdf files!

So what's next?

EDIT: I read on some other forums where users had success getting this to work by checking "Index Encrypted Files" in the Indexing Options and then Rebuilding the index.  So I tried that, but no success.  Win7 search still won't find pdf file contents 😞

[Guest]

So, I opened a Customer Support case with Adobe.

Today, I get their response.  The first line says it all.  The rest of it is just standard yada and was a waste of time if they had bothered to read what I sent them.  I've already done what they cut & pasted.

The status of my case has been changed to "Withdrawn."  So much for Adobe customer support.

Here's their response:

"I regret to inform you that we have not tested it yet on windows 7
platform. However I would like to inform you that Please follow the
steps mentioned below:

1. Download and extract the contents of "PDFiFilter64installer.zip" to
your local drive.( FROM THE LINK MENTIONED BELOW):

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

2. Double click "PDFFilter64installer.msi" to launch the installer.

3. Follow the instructions in the installer wizard to complete the
installation.

After installing the PDF iFilter, it is recommended that you set your
system PATH environment variable to the "bin" folder of the "Ifilter"
installation. For example, from the "Control
Panel\System\Advanced\Environment Variables" tab, append to PATH
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for 64-bit platforms\bin\"
and then restart the computer."

[Guest]

I am able to get the PDF hits while searching for the PDF contents. PDF  iFilter works fine for me, but i could see a problem, when I am searching in a parent folder(which is actually unindexed) and it contains the indexed folder containing PDF files, they are not searchable. But the same is happening with me for Office files as well. And this is specific to only Win7 both 32 and 64 bit, seems to be a bug on Microsoft side.

I can suggest you a workaround, just index the folder from which you are searching and then you can get the hits from PDF content as well.

[Guest]

I finally found the root cause of my problem and resolved it.  All the details can be found here:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7files/thread/ef5fa7c3-bb64-4f3e-9607-3e01349dccca

See my post there dated Oct. 03, 2010

Gary A

[Phil00005]

This will fix your problem:

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/ifilter/

BTW, 39x faster than Adobe.

Cheers,

PDFPro