PDF title display in Windows Explorer

In Windows 7 you can no longer display the title of PDF files using Windows Explorer's details. You can insert the title field in the display but the contents are blank for all PDF files.
In a business environment, we use large numbers of PDF files and displaying the titles in details view in Windows Explorer is critical. Apparently this functionality was "lost" after Windows went away from XP. (I don't know if it worked in Vista).
Note; while the Title property is the most important one that I personally need displayed, I believe this problem extends to other metadata associated with the PDF files. So the right way to solve it would be make all of the metadata accessible to Windows Explorer.
Or
Provide a tool to replace windows explorer which will display the PDF metadata as well as the metadata for all other file types as well.

I've also been wrestling with the lack of displayed Title information for PDF files and just recently stumbled on the oddity that Windows Explorer will display data in the PDF metadata "title" field if one runs a Windows Explorer "search" based on "*.pdf". Yes it will do the same based on a "pdf" only search but the screen return is messy. Exactly why the Title data displays in a search but not otherwise escapes me for now. This is true for Windows 7 32 and 64 bit systems.
I'll also note that a Windows Explorer "search" for key words that might be in a PDF file's metadata will return PDF files with those key words and display the Title data if the Title field is set to display in Windows Explorer.

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PDF tab missing in Windows Explorer

We have a number of Windows 7 and Vista machines running Acrobat 9 Standard or Professional. When viewing the file properties of any PDF in Windows Explorer on any of these machines except one, there's a "PDF" tab that displays metadata information on the file. On one Win7 Ultimate PC running Acrobat 9.4 Professional, that tab doesn't display. The metadata can be seein in Acrobat File -> Properties, and can be searched in Windows Explorer, but cannot be accessed using that tab. As far as I know, there's no customization in either Acrobat or Windows that would cause this tab not to display - I've compared every setting I can think of between machines that show the PDF tab and the one that doesn't. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

According to the following article, this is an Adobe problem related to their shell extension called pdfshell.dll. That extension is only a 32 bit extension, and 64 bit Windows will not run 32 bit extensions.
Check out the Ccmment from Tad Marshall here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/33971c82-78ee-445b-acb5- 5a64db5b6bb0/
"As part of the Adobe Reader download, Adobe provides a shell extension called pdfshell.dll. On 32-bit Windows XP, you'll find it in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX folder. On 64-bit Windows 7, you'll find it in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX folder. But, on either system, it's a 32-bit shell extension. On 64-bit Windows 7, Windows Explorer will only run as a 64-bit program. According to numerous web forum posters, this was a change between the last "beta" and the "RC" version of 64-bit Windows 7. There is a 32-bit version of Windows Explorer in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder, but if you try to run it you get another instance of 64-bit Explorer. The (first) problem is that 64-bit Windows Explorer won't load a 32-bit shell extension.
You can see the 32-bit pdfshell.dll "working" on 64-bit Windows 7 in the File Open dialog of any 32-bit application (such as Adobe Reader). To see this, first open an Explorer window and navigate to a folder that has some PDF files like your IBM manual. Right click on the file and choose Properties. Look at the tabs in the dialog and note that there is no PDF tab. Now, OK out of the Properties dialog and double-click on the same file to open it in Adobe Reader. Now press Ctrl-O or choose File Open to get the File Open dialog. Navigate to the same folder, right click on the same file and choose Properties. Look at the tabs and see that you now have the PDF tab that was missing in Explorer. In that tab, you can see the Title that pdfshell.dll has pulled from the file. This works because 32-bit Adobe Reader has loaded a 32-bit common file dialog which *will* load a 32-bit shell extension."

PDF Thumbnail view in windows explorer

Hi guys, hope you can give me a hand! I`m about to lose my mind here.
I have 4 machines with adobe reader 8.1 installed and in those 4 machines I can see my pdf files as thumnails (they´re books, so I see the cover of each one of them). On my 5th computer not only have I adobe reader 8.1 installed but Adobe Acrobat 8 Standard. But when I select thumbnail view in windows explorer it just does not work.
I`ve tried changing the default program to open pdf files but again all I see it´s a thumbnail alright but it only displays the adobe logo not the first page of the pdf file.
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Martin

This is a question for the Acrobat or Reader support forums, not here...

Unable to save document - Read Only or Open by another user error occurs when PDF is opened from Windows Explorer

Adobe Pro XI - using Windows 7 Pro OS
When a PDF document is opened from Windows Explorer, and pages are added, deleted, notations made, any type of changes, it cannot be saved until Windows Explorer is fully closed. If you try to save the document, you receive the following error - "The document could not be saved. The file may be read-only, or another user may have it opened. Please save the document with a different name or in a differnt folder. " I have confirmed the document is not read only, it is not open by another user, and it is not open multiple times. Once you fully close Windows Explorer, and try to save the document, it saves without a problem.
Are there settings in either Adobe Pro XI or Windows that will allow you to save documents without closing Windows Explorer first?
Thank you for any assistance you can provide. This error is a frustration since I open all my documents through Windows Explorer.

[discussion moved to Creating, Editing & Exporting PDFs forum]

Screen is open in Black PDf Document & not in Windows Explorer

I went to this website http://www.islamicbulletin.org/spanish/ebooks/ryad_es/Ryyad_As_Salihin.html
and whenever I open the pdf documents it comes in black. I uninstalled and installed again Mozilla and the problem is still there. I can view the pdf fine in Windows Explorer, but would rather use Mozilla

Firefox's built-in PDF viewer is not as full-featured as Adobe's viewer and does not always handle advanced PDF layouts correctly. If you haven't already, try switching your PDF viewer in Firefox using the steps in this article: [[How to disable the built-in PDF viewer and use another viewer]].
Also, to make sure your Adobe viewer is up-to-date, I suggest opening your stand-alone Adobe application (either Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader) and using its Help menu > Check for Updates. Keeping the software up to date will help protect you from attacks that use specially crafted PDF documents to break into your system.

Preserving doc "Date Created" as displayed in Windows explorer

Hello. We've just retired an SBS and have about 2000 Word docs that have their attached templates linked to the obsolete server. Using EditAttachedTemplates (vb.net) solves the missing template problem but introduces another. It wipes the
Date Created - for Windows explorer purposes.
Our staff accesses all of the .docm's by windows explorer (sorted by "Date Created"). Without the template repair app, each doc takes 30 seconds to open and machines are searching for the old server.
I do not have access to the source code of the template repair app. Also... I am not a dev and we do not employ one. So... hypothetically, if I could find someone to alter the vb repair app, could it in theory be adjusted so that the original
"Date Created" as displayed in W7 explorer would be unchanged?

Thank you, Paul.
This code has following issues:
1. Its "Last Modified" date retention line returns an error. "Object does not support this action". I worked it around using the Shell method though.
UpdateModDT xFolder, xFile, xDT
Function UpdateModDT(myFolder, myFile, DateTime)
Dim objShell, objFolder
Set objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set objFolder = objShell.NameSpace(CStr(myFolder))
objFolder.Items.Item(myFile).ModifyDate = DateTime
End Function
2. It skips the Protected files and returns an error when it cannot write the reason in the the document from where it was run
3. It only works on one extension type at a time, i.e. currently set for *.doc
Can you please assist on this?
Thanks,
Josh

Microsoft Update KB2670838 will not allow PDFs to display in Internet Explorer 11 and 10

HI all,
When upgrading to Internet Explorer 11/10 in Windows 7 Enterprise, there is an update KB2670838. It halts the operations of PDF's into the browser, instead it throws up a blank page with a small box thats crossed and it wont let them show up in Adobe Acrobat/Reader.This update is a requirement for Internet Explorer 11 to install and while wed love to get on the latest version, we just cant with this problem. Internet Explorer 9 displays PDFs in broswer just fine.
We have tried in Adobe to make it so it will not display in broswer by unchecking that option, but it still does not display. reading up on it there is a registry hack that helps alivate this but it is only for Windows 8/8.1.
Any tips/solutions/Help for this would be appreciated for this.
Thanks!

The solution is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2716529 but as you write, the "fixit" is only for Windows 8.
To apply it on Windows 7, download, unzip, then run the attached registry script.

I don't see thumbnails for PDF files in my Windows Explorer

Hi,
When browsing through my File Manager to look for files, I used to be able to see a thumbnail of any PDF files I'd saved.
I can still see the old ones created earlier, but my more recent files just show a black square with the Adobe 'A' in bottom right hand corner or sometimes a large Adobe 'A' on white field with "PDF" in top left corner.
Seeing a thumbnail I think helps to find your file. Does anyone know why I don't get them any more or how to get them back. (The save a thumbnail option is checked for normal word docs, but not visible when saving as PDF.
I am using Mic Office 2010 (Word) to save as PDF. My computer is Windows 7 64bit.
Interesting, I can see a preview of PDF files which is a help, but not individual thumbnails for my more recent files....can still see them for older, longer ago saved PDFs.
Added info:
Just checked, I last had thumbnails in December 2011, January 2012 I stopped getting them.
Tried to insert a picture to show you what I get in explorer, but just get a big dark grey square so I'll explain. Just worked out the following.
Prior to end of 2011 my PDFs have a thumbnail.
After that I just have a black square with the Adobe 'A' in bottom right hand corner if I create PDF with Word
If I do 'Save As' while in the reader I get a large Adobe 'A' on white field with "PDF" in top left corner
Message was edited by: Corvus Orru
NO, NOT THAT SIMPLE, now I find some normal thumbnails later in 2012, so the behaviour is changeable!!!!!
Message was edited by: Corvus Orru

did you install acrobat x and does it work as expected?

Acrobat Pro X - Combine files to pdf not available in windows explorer

I recently upgraded to Acrobat Pro X. With my previous version I could select a group of files, right click and the pop-up menu would allow me to select to combine the files into a pdf. This feature is no longer available after installing Acrobat Pro X. I am using Windows 7 Professional x64. Did Acrobat fail to install properly or was this feature eliminated?

See this post.

Error in PDF preview Handler in Windows Explorer x32

I'm running Windows 7, 32 bit. and I get this error when trying to view a pdf in the preview pane "Error in PDF Preview Handler". I have Adobe Reader X installed, and have re-installed it with no help.
I've read many problems about this, but everyone else is running 64 bit. I'm running 32.
Any help please. Thank you

Yes - sorry !
I solved my problem with the exchange of the UNC path against drive letters for the folders in
Administration - System initialisation - General settings - Tab Path
Before:
sbo-data\ruk\attachemnts
After: E:\ruk\attachements (E: is a local drive of the server and we run B1 via Windows Terminal Client on the same machine)
Before I did this, I checked the user rights on the paths, checked the DNS, hosts file, etc.
Regards
Michael Benner

Windows Explorer for Windows 7.1 32-bit does not display pdf title

Using Adobe Reader XI version 11.0.08 the pdf title does not display in the Title column of Windows Explorer. This worked under Windows XP 32-bit
How is this fixed?
wojw

Here is the screen shot. Notice the Title column is empty.

No TITLEs displayed in Detail view in Windows Explorer

The following pertains to Windows 7 Professional 64-bit vs. Windows XP Professional 32-bit.
In Windows Explorer, when viewing the file list in 'detail' view, you can also add the 'title' attribute for display by right-clicking the attribute bar above the file list. However, in Windows 7, no titles are displayed for PDF files that have this
information which were displayed under WinXP. Also, if the file properties are displayed, the PDF tab is gone.
I cannot find any info on how to re-enable this feature. If XP-style PDF title attributes have been removed or disabled in Windows 7 Explorer, it is a MAJOR omission for our corporation. We have a massive collection of corporate
and 3rd party PDF documents where interdocument links will not work if the filename is changed. The TITLE attribute in detail view is used to display the document title, not the filename. If any other view is used, e.g. icon view, the bubble
popup displays the title in WinXP, but this again doesn't work in Win7. Without the title attribute working as it does in XP, we may have to forego moving from XP to Windows 7 on our desktops (we're skipping Vista, of course), and find an alternate
desktop OS (Linux?) that still supports this feature.
For example, every IBM software/hardware PDF manual has a cryptic filename which does not reflect anything about the title of the manual. These filenames support inter-manual links, so renaming the PDF manuals to reflect the title is absolutely
not an option. However, the PDF attributes of the file do contain the title, and these were visible under both Properties (the PDF tab), and the TITLE column in Detail view under WinXP. However, both of these features are gone in Windows 7,
and to say it's a PITA is a gross understatement.
We want (need) this feature back in Windows 7. I'd call it a show-stopper in moving to Windows 7 if this isn't fixed, and soon!
Btw, Microsoft, we have over 45,000 desktops currently running WinXP, plus 100's of Win2003/Win2008 servers in our corp. Are you listening?

Here's what seems to be going on.
As part of the Adobe Reader download, Adobe provides a shell extension called pdfshell.dll. On 32-bit Windows XP, you'll find it in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX folder. On 64-bit Windows 7, you'll find it in the C:\Program
Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX folder. But, on either system, it's a 32-bit shell extension. On 64-bit Windows 7, Windows Explorer will only run as a 64-bit program. According to numerous web forum posters, this was a change
between the last "beta" and the "RC" version of 64-bit Windows 7. There is a 32-bit version of Windows Explorer in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder, but if you try to run it you get another instance of 64-bit Explorer. The (first)
problem is that 64-bit Windows Explorer won't load a 32-bit shell extension.
You can see the 32-bit pdfshell.dll "working" on 64-bit Windows 7 in the File Open dialog of any 32-bit application (such as Adobe Reader). To see this, first open an Explorer window and navigate to a folder that has some PDF files like your
IBM manual. Right click on the file and choose Properties. Look at the tabs in the dialog and note that there is no PDF tab. Now, OK out of the Properties dialog and double-click on the same file to open it in Adobe Reader. Now press
Ctrl-O or choose File Open to get the File Open dialog. Navigate to the same folder, right click on the same file and choose Properties. Look at the tabs and see that you now have the PDF tab that was missing in Explorer. In that tab, you
can see the Title that pdfshell.dll has pulled from the file. This works because 32-bit Adobe Reader has loaded a 32-bit common file dialog which *will* load a 32-bit shell extension.
But you're not out of the woods yet. The common file dialog has many of the features of Explorer, and you can select Details view and right-click on the column headers to choose to show a Title column. This will show Titles for several document
types, but not for PDF files. This isn't a 64-bit versus 32-bit issues, it's a Windows XP versus Vista and later issue. What Adobe implemented in pdfshell.dll is an ActiveX interface called IColumnProvider, and Microsoft dropped support for this
interface in Windows Vista (replacing it with something called the Property System). You can glance at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776831%28VS.85%29.aspx and just read the first line after the page header: "[This feature is supported
only under Windows XP or earlier. ]". So, the PDF Title column feature didn't go away with 64-bit Windows 7, it went away with 32-bit Windows Vista.
The best solution to this problem would be for Adobe to update pdfshell.dll to provide the Property System interface that Vista and Windows 7 require. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776859%28v=VS.85%29.aspx if you care for the details.
Then Adobe should release 32-bit and 64-bit versions of pdfshell.dll implementing the new interface, and we'd get both the PDF tab and Explorer columns like Title for PDF files in 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 (and Vista).
Alternatively, some enterprising developer could presumably write a shim that would present the Property System interface on its upper side (callable by Explorer) and the IColumnProvider interface on its lower side (capable of calling existing versions of
pdfshell.dll). It would need to deal with interfacing between 64-bit Explorer and a 32-bit pdfshell.dll ... I assume that this is possible somehow, but I don't know.
A kludge that might be (barely?) usable would be to use Windows XP Mode to run a 32-bit Windows XP Explorer and use that to navigate using the PDF Titles and possibly launch them. Perhaps you could come up with a way to make Windows XP Mode's Explorer
launch Adobe Reader in the host 64-bit Windows 7 OS.
A third-party solution might be xplorer^2 (http://www.zabkat.com/index.htm) which claims to support the interface that Microsoft dropped in Vista (http://www.zabkat.com/blog/07Feb10-column-handlers-revived.htm). I know nothing about this program, I
just found it while Googling for "column handler". It says that it has a 21 day trial, is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions and costs $29.95 (presumably US dollars). There is a "lite" version that is free for non-commercial
use ... all of this info is just repeated from their web pages, I have no connection to the company and only know what I read ... I haven't tried it.
It's worth noting that life isn't perfect with pdfshell.dll and 32-bit Windows XP either, depending on your PDF files. Some documents don't have Titles (depending, partly, on what software produced them). Some have Titles long enough that they
won't display in an Explorer column (though they show up truncated on the status line and un-truncated in a tooltip). I have a file called "GEARaspi Security Information.pdf" (http://www.gearsoftware.com/support/GEARAspi%20Security%20Information.pdf)
that has no Title, created by OpenOffice.org 2.4 according to its PDF tab. I have another called "319124.pdf" (http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/whitepaper/319124.pdf) which has the rather wordy title "Intel® Extreme Memory Profile
(Intel® XMP) supporting Intel® X48 Express Chipset with DDR3 White Paper". Despite having a Title, no Title is displayed in a Title column in Windows Explorer in 32-bit Windows XP, though a truncated version appears in the status bar and
the tooltip gets the whole thing, wrapping to two lines to do it. Intel's file was produced with Acrobat PDFMaker 7.0 for Word according to its PDF tab.
This post is based on what I could figure out, I hope it's helpful (if discouraging ... you won't fix this with a registry hack).

Can't open PDF files from Windows Explorer on Windows 8.1

Hello,
after I've upgraded to Windows 8.1, I can't open PDF files from Windows Explorer (directly double clicking the file). The AcroRd32.exe runs in the background (2x !) as I see the processes in task manager, but there is no user interface visible. I have Acrobat
Reader 11.0.06, the desktop version (not Metro). I tried uninstalling the Acrobat reader and installing it again but this didn't help. The only way to open PDF files is to close the AcroRd32.exe from the task manager, open empty Acrobat Reader from the desktop
and then drag&drop the PDF file over that window. This is quite inconvenient. Is there a way to fix this issue so I can open PDF files directly from windows explorer?
Many thanks!

I had to install adobe reader, but PDF's used to display just fine with IE, any idea what happened ?
Windows 8.1 pro.
thx
lee

How can I display the CREATED date of an acrobat file in Windows Explorer (Win 7)?

I want to display the Created date is shown in Document Properties in Windows Explorer, here's the field I want to see in Explorer:

Try this pdf file, the help file from this page:
https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat.html
Download this file and see what you see in Windows Exploer
http://helpx.adobe.com/en/pdf/acrobat_reference.pdf
Compare dates on the Internal Acrobat Properties and those displayed in Windows Explorer:
Here's what Windows Says:

Windows explorer no longer displays devices after ios 8 update

I recently purchased an IPhone 6 and IPhone 6 plus and noticed that they do not show up in Windows Explorer when connected to a Windows Desktop.
I recently updated 2 iPhone 5s and 2 iPhone 5, and noticed that prior to performing the IOS8 update, the devices appear in Windows Explorer as a storage device and I was able to copy all the photos from each of the device onto the Windows Desktop. After updating all of them to IOS8, none of them or the IPhone 6 show up as a storage device. Can anyone tell me if this is intentional or if this has something to do with the fact that the CAMERA ROLL was removed? I did read in other forums/news indicating that there are efforts to put CAMERAL ROLL back. In light of this, does anyone know if this will allow the devices to display in Windows Explorer again?
I don't have a major problem since I copied all the contents from the Iphone5 phones for backup prior to updating to IOS8, but kind of annoying if I have tons of photos on the phone and don't want to waste my time deleting them on the phone. I find it faster when using Windows Explorer to delete unwanted photos or add photos I want.

I was having this problem too, even after updating to iOS 8.1
iPhone 6 plus was recognized by iTunes but not Windows Explorer.
Unplugged USB, unlocked phone (lock screen pin code or fingerprint) and reconnected to USB.
When prompted press Trust this computer and yippee the phone pops up in Windows.
The bit I had overlooked was unlocking the pin code on the phone.
This page helped
Import photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your Mac or Windows PC - Apple Support

PDF title display in Windows Explorer

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