Reinstalling PDFCreator

When facing any type of software complications, reinstalling can be a time-saving and efficient solution. Prioritize reinstalling as the initial step before attempting any other methods.

Note: Before starting the reinstallation make sure to backup your settings with the "Save settings to file" in the debug tab of the PDFCreator application settings (For PDFCreator Server: "Save settings to file" is found in the General tab).

Please use the most recent setup to reinstall PDFCreator.
(You can always find the most recent setup for your product on our website: https://download.pdfforge.org)

If you're finished with the preparations, please follow the following steps:

  1. Make sure PDFCreator is closed
    • For PDFCreator Server: Make sure that the service PDFCreator Server is turned off
    • For PDFCreator Terminal Server: Make sure that the Service PDFCreator Licensing Service is turned off
  2. Uninstall PDFCreator using the control panel
  3. Double check that PDFCreator was uninstalled correctly
    • For PDFCreator Server: Make sure that the service PDFCreator Server is uninstalled
    • For PDFCreator Terminal Server: Make sure that the service PDFCreator Licensing Service is uninstalled
  4. Check if there are any PDFCreator printers left in "Devices and Printers," manually uninstalling them if needed
  5. Check if the pdfcmon.dll file was deleted from C:\Windows\System32 (delete it manually if not)
    • To delete the pdfcmon.dll you will probably need to stop the spooler
    • Execute the command prompt as administrator
        • Use the command "net stop spooler" to stop the spooler
        • Delete the pdfcmon.dll file
        • Restart the spooler using "net start spooler" 
  6. Delete the PDFCreator Installation Folder
  7. You can now reinstall PDFCreator