[britechguy]

I'm not sure where this query belongs since it mixes both application and Windows "under the hood" level interaction.

 

A while back I installed the iFilter software from Adobe that allowed Windows Indexing to index both file properties and contents for PDF files.  I have very many PDF files and it was a godsend to be able to search them for content when I couldn't remember where, exactly, something was located.

 

Once I installed Reader XI the indexing of file contents for PDF files became broken and the message "Registered iFilter is not found" is shown in the Advanced dialog for PDF files under Indexing Options.

 

I have completely removed the previously installed Reader XI as well as the iFilter that had been installed separately, since Adobe claims that the iFilter for X64 systems now comes bundled with Reader XI.  The computer was shut down and restarted after the uninstallations, and a fresh copy of Reader XI was installed.  This has fixed absolutely nothing.

 

It seems that there are many, many people with this problem, but very few solutions to it out there.  I tried several suggested fixes, none of which worked, before the full uninstall/reinstall.

 

Does anyone know how to fix this problem (I hope once and for all)?  It's a real PITA to not be able to use Windows search to look for content in PDF files.

 

[My comuter is running Win7 Home Premium 64-bit].

 

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Now I'll post what appears to have finally worked:

 

1. Uninstall BOTH Adobe Reader XI and Adobe PDF iFilter 11 for 64-bit platforms and reboot the computer.

 

2. Reinstall a completely fresh copy of Adobe Reader XI.

 

3. Go into Indexing Options ->Advanced->File Types dialog and unselect PDF for indexing. Once you do that and close the File Types Dialog, click the "Pause" button on the Advanced Page to pause the rebuilding of the index.

 

4. Reinstall the PDF iFilter 64 v 11.0.01, available for download at this page on the Adobe website.

 

5. Go back to Indexing Options->Advanced->File Types, select PDF for indexing, and make sure the radio button for "Index Properties and File Contents" is selected.  When you do this, instead of seeing the "Registered iFilter is not found" message in the "Filter Description" column you should see "PDF Filter" there instead.

 

6.  Let Windows rebuild the index, which can take quite a while if you're doing other things.

 

Contrary to a lot of the information out there about the necessity of doing a regedit to change the value of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf\PersistentHandler back to 1AA9BF05-9A97-48C1-BA28-D9DCE795E93C from F6594A6D-D57F-4EFD-B2C3-DCD9779E382E did absolutely nothing.  In fact, when I reinstalled the iFilter it overwrote the manual edit I had done after installing Adobe Reader XI to see if that tweak would fix things.

 

It appears that it may not even be necessary to reinstall Reader, but only to uninstall and reinstall the iFilter.  I'll note that I did not restart the computer after installing the new copy of the iFilter.  As soon as that reinstall was complete I saw the message change from "Registered iFilter is not found" to "PDF Filter" in the dialog mentioned above.

 

I hope this helps anyone else who's facing this issue on a 64-bit Windows system.  Adobe really needs to fix their own releases so that upgrades don't break the search function once it's been set up correctly.

[britechguy]

Now I'll post what appears to have finally worked:

 

1. Uninstall BOTH Adobe Reader XI and Adobe PDF iFilter 11 for 64-bit platforms and reboot the computer.

 

2. Reinstall a completely fresh copy of Adobe Reader XI.

 

3. Go into Indexing Options ->Advanced->File Types dialog and unselect PDF for indexing. Once you do that and close the File Types Dialog, click the "Pause" button on the Advanced Page to pause the rebuilding of the index.

 

4. Reinstall the PDF iFilter 64 v 11.0.01, available for download at this page on the Adobe website.

 

5. Go back to Indexing Options->Advanced->File Types, select PDF for indexing, and make sure the radio button for "Index Properties and File Contents" is selected.  When you do this, instead of seeing the "Registered iFilter is not found" message in the "Filter Description" column you should see "PDF Filter" there instead.

 

6.  Let Windows rebuild the index, which can take quite a while if you're doing other things.

 

Contrary to a lot of the information out there about the necessity of doing a regedit to change the value of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf\PersistentHandler back to 1AA9BF05-9A97-48C1-BA28-D9DCE795E93C from F6594A6D-D57F-4EFD-B2C3-DCD9779E382E did absolutely nothing.  In fact, when I reinstalled the iFilter it overwrote the manual edit I had done after installing Adobe Reader XI to see if that tweak would fix things.

 

It appears that it may not even be necessary to reinstall Reader, but only to uninstall and reinstall the iFilter.  I'll note that I did not restart the computer after installing the new copy of the iFilter.  As soon as that reinstall was complete I saw the message change from "Registered iFilter is not found" to "PDF Filter" in the dialog mentioned above.

 

I hope this helps anyone else who's facing this issue on a 64-bit Windows system.  Adobe really needs to fix their own releases so that upgrades don't break the search function once it's been set up correctly.