Hi. After an update of my Windows 10 OS (Version 1803, OS Build 17134.254) my PDFCreator "disappeared" from my Windows printers. I downloaded the latest version of PDFCreator and still no joy; the Debug function in PDFCreator correctly printed a test page from PDFCreator but NOT a Windows test page (error: The specified driver is invalid, error 0x000007d1).
I called Microsoft and got a Windows software specialist who (for once!) actually knew what he was doing. After just a few minutes of looking at my laptop setup, "Allan" went to the Windows Registry and was able to fix the problem by doing the following:
Press windows key + R. Type 'regedit' in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate, and then click the following registry subkey if it exists: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\PostSPUpgrade
On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click Yes to confirm the removal of the PostSPUpgrade registry key.
Restart your PC (OR run ‘net stop spooler’ followed by ‘net start spooler’ from an elevated command prompt).
All working now (i.e., I can once again access the PDFCreator printer from all my Microsoft Office programmes).
Christopher.
thank you very much for this very detailed and useful information.
I wasn't able to reproduce this on my machine though, there seem to be additional conditions towards this.
Were you previously (before the current update) still running Win 10 1709 (any build)?
According to the official MS information, the update fixes issues for connecting to network printers after logging on, but the printer might no longer show up in apps like "notepad or devices and printers" https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4346783/windows-10-update-kb4346783
Was PDFCreator a network printer on your system, or installed locally?
Hi Robin.
PDFCreator was installed locally, directly onto my laptop (i.e., not a network printer). Although I was able to print a test page from PDFCreator (via your Debug function). PDFCreator was not an available printer on ANY Windows application (i.e., Excel, Word, Microsoft Edge, etc.).
And sorry, but I can't tell you what version of Win 10 I was running before the update to Version 1803.
Cheers. ckp
Thank you for the feedback.
The PDFCreator testpage doesn't go through the printer, it just converts a predefined Postscript page with your current profile settings. So far it seems this is a rare issue caused by some specific configuration and not exclusively affecting PDFCreator but also some other hardware printers. At least now we know (thanks to you) how to fix it if anybody else runs into this issue.
I too have had this issue. Windows 10 did an update and now PDF creator will not work. I have uninstalled and re-installed and still nothing. It will show with a printer icon at the bottom and then I can go into the temp files and find the spool. However, I am unable to Print to PDF Creator or merge my documents like I did before.