Acrobat Reader command line problem

Question

In windows xp professional I'm programatically creating a batch file and executing it (shell command in visual basic) to convert pdf files to Microsoft xps.
The batch command looks like this one:
"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 10.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe" /t "D:\MyDir\Microsoft XPS Document\x.pdf" "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" /t "D:\MyDir\Microsoft XPS Document\x.xps".
When the user logged in on the machine is an administrator, acrobat reader does the operation silently. When a normal user (not belonging to administrators group) is logged in on the machine, acrobat reader opens the save as dialog window requiring user interaction.
The normal user has full control over the destination directory. I already tested giving the normal user full control over AcroRd32.exe and over cmd.exe with no success. I also tried in visual basic 2008 executing the command through System.Diagnostics.Process.Start with the exact same curious results.
Can someone help.
Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi.
I couldn't find a solution within Adobe for the problem I reported Oct 9, 2012, so I went to a fallback solution aimed to complete the needed stages. I'm posting here the visual basic 2008 code I wrote then. It is not a graceful solution and has some coarse code but was designed as part of an application that must keep processing files without user intervention. The procedure "followAcroRd32PDFtoXPS" must be called after the execution of a batch command like the described in the previous post:
Module fallback
    Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Integer
    Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" (ByVal hwndParent As Integer, ByVal hwndChildAfter As Integer, ByVal lpszClass As String, ByVal lpszWindow As String) As Integer
    Declare Function GetDlgCtrlID Lib "user32" (ByVal hDlg As Integer) As Integer
    Declare Function SendDlgItemMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendDlgItemMessageA" (ByVal hDlg As Integer, ByVal nIDDlgItem As Integer, ByVal Msg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As String) As Integer
    Declare Function PostMessage Lib "user32" Alias "PostMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Integer, ByVal wMsg As Integer, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As Integer) As Integer
    Const WM_SETTEXT = &HC
    Const BM_CLICK = &HF5
    Function FileInUse(ByVal filepath As String) As Boolean
        Dim f001 As Integer
        If System.IO.File.Exists(filepath) Then
            Try
                f001 = FreeFile()
                FileOpen(f001, filepath, OpenMode.Binary, OpenAccess.ReadWrite, OpenShare.LockReadWrite)
                FileClose(f001)
            Catch
                Return True
            End Try
        End If
    End Function
    'outpfile <-- path to the XPS Document to be created
    'starttime <-- system date and time when the batch command line was executed
    Sub followAcroRd32PDFtoXPS(ByVal outpfile As String, ByVal starttime As System.DateTime)
        Dim p As System.Diagnostics.Process, q As System.Diagnostics.Process, proc() As System.Diagnostics.Process
        Dim i As Integer, j As Integer
        Dim l As Long, memusage() As Long
        Dim t000 As System.DateTime
        Dim t999 As System.DateTime
        Dim hwnd As Integer, lObjhWndTB As Integer, lObjhWndBu As Integer
        Dim nIDDlgItem As Integer
        Dim resu As Integer
        dim maximumacrobatwaittime = 60 'seconds
        dim memoryusageinactivity = 12 'seconds
        dim acrord32pdftoxpstimelimit = 12 'seconds
        'Identify necessary Adobe Reader process
        t000 = DateTime.Now
        Do
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
            i = 0
            For Each p In System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses
                If LCase(p.ProcessName) = LCase("AcroRd32") Then
                    If Not p.StartTime < starttime Then
                        ReDim Preserve proc(i)
                        proc(i) = p
                        i = i + 1
                    End If
                End If
            Next
            If i > 0 Then Exit Do
            t999 = DateTime.Now
            If DateDiff(DateInterval.Second, t000, t999) > maximumacrobatwaittime Then
                Exit Sub
            End If
        Loop
        'Identify necessary window
        t000 = DateTime.Now
        Do
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
            hwnd = FindWindow(vbNullString, "Save the file as")
            If hwnd <> 0 Then
                Exit Do
            End If
            t999 = DateTime.Now
            If DateDiff(DateInterval.Second, t000, t999) > maximumacrobatwaittime Then
                Exit Sub
            End If
        Loop
        'Send click message to button save
        t000 = DateTime.Now
        Do
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
            lObjhWndTB = FindWindowEx(hwnd, 0, "ComboBoxEx32", "")
            If Not lObjhWndTB = 0 Then
                nIDDlgItem = GetDlgCtrlID(lObjhWndTB)
                resu = SendDlgItemMessage(hwnd, nIDDlgItem, WM_SETTEXT, 0, outpfile)
                If resu > 0 Then
                    lObjhWndBu = FindWindowEx(hwnd, 0, "Button", "&Save")
                    If Not lObjhWndBu = 0 Then
                        resu = PostMessage(lObjhWndBu, BM_CLICK, 0, 0)
                        If Not resu = 0 Then
                            Exit Do
                        End If
                    End If
                End If
            End If
            t999 = DateTime.Now
            If DateDiff(DateInterval.Second, t000, t999) > maximumacrobatwaittime Then
                Exit Sub
            End If
        Loop
        'Adobe Reader eventually will enter inactivity after printing to XPS Document
        ReDim memusage(0)
        Do
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
            ReDim Preserve memusage(UBound(memusage) + 1)
            For Each p In proc
                p.Refresh()
                memusage(UBound(memusage)) = memusage(UBound(memusage)) + p.WorkingSet64
            Next
            If Not UBound(memusage) < memoryusageinactivity Then
                j = 0
                l = memusage(UBound(memusage))
                For i = UBound(memusage) - 1 To UBound(memusage) - memoryusageinactivity + 1 Step -1
                    If l = memusage(i) Then j = j + 1
                Next
                Select Case j
                    Case memoryusageinactivity - 1
                        Exit Do
                    Case Else
                End Select
            End If
        Loop
        'Wait for the new XPS Document
        t000 = DateTime.Now
        Do
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000)
            Select Case My.Computer.FileSystem.FileExists(outpfile)
                Case True
                    If Not FileInUse(outpfile) Then Exit Do
                Case Else
            End Select
            t999 = DateTime.Now
            If DateDiff(DateInterval.Second, t000, t999) > acrord32pdftoxpstimelimit Then
                Exit Do
            End If
        Loop
        'Kill Adobe Reader process
        For Each p In proc
            p.Refresh()
            Try
                p.Kill()
            Catch ex As Exception
            End Try
        Next
        'Kill eventual MS Windows error reporting system process
        For Each p In System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses
            If LCase(p.ProcessName) = LCase("WerFault") Then
                If LCase(p.MainWindowTitle) = LCase("Print driver host for 32bit applications") Then
                    For Each q In System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcesses
                        If LCase(q.ProcessName) = LCase("splwow64") Then
                            Try
                                q.Kill()
                            Catch ex As Exception
                            End Try
                        End If
                    Next
                    Try
                        p.Kill()
                    Catch ex As Exception
                    End Try
                End If
            End If
        Next
    End Sub
End Module