I’ve worked this week setting up a new computer for a client. They’ve replaced a dinosaur of a machine with a brand new HP Slimline running Windows Vista 64-bit operating system. Everything went well until I tried to print a PDF.
My first surprise was that the machine didn’t have a PDF reader application installed by default. The fact that it didn’t even have Adobe Reader installed was another surprise. I went to my trusty replacement PDF reader application, which is Foxit Software’s Foxit Reader.
After installing Foxit’s Reader, I opened a PDF file with no problems. The challenge occurred when I tried to print the PDF, which was the ultimate goal. As soon as I hit the print button I immediately got an error message and the application crashed.
I thought maybe there was a problem with Foxit, so I uninstalled it and installed Adobe Reader instead, after downloading the ridiculously large 34MB installer. Opened the PDF file with reader and went to print and got an error message immediately as well.
The question now is if there’s a known issue with printing PDF’s on Windows Vista 64-bit operating system? Maybe the fact that there was no reader application installed by default could have been a hint. If this is a known issue, does anyone have any ideas how to to fix the issue? Wondering if running the PDF reader app in compatibility mode.