If you’re like me, or other knowledge workers who work with documents, you most likely have hundreds, if not thousands of PDFs stashed away in folders on your computer. As much as I love Windows 7 , I was surprised to find out recently that the integrated search does not index PDF content! Turns out that there is an easy fix from Adobe. Good news!
Adobe bundles an extension for Microsoft’s iFilter with Acrobat 9 and the free Reader 9, however 64bit users will need an additional download.
You’ll need to download the installer from Adobe at;
Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for 64-bit platforms
Once downloaded, run the installer, then when its complete follow the last instruction listed on the Adobe site;
“After installing the PDF iFilter, it is recommended that you set your system PATH environment variable to the “bin” folder of the “Ifilter” installation. For example, from the “Control PanelSystemAdvancedEnvironment Variables” tab, append to PATH “C:Program FilesAdobeAdobe PDF iFilter 9 for 64-bit platformsbin” and then restart the computer.”
Once you complete this last step, you should start to see PDF content being indexed the next time Windows scans through your file system. If you want to confirm everything was installed correctly, open the “Control Panel->Indexing Options->Advanced Options->File Types” and ensure that next to the PDF extension you see PDF Filter.
March 30th, 2011 at 1:52 am
Thanks, this was just what I was looking for! I didn’t adjust the PATH setting though because the filter seems to be working fine without it…
May 31st, 2011 at 11:41 am
I wonder if the most recent Acrobat X will be compatible with the v9 ifilter?
June 16th, 2011 at 11:14 am
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
I was searching for this problem quite some time, till I found your great post.
WORKS LIKE A BREEZE.
P.S. For me it didn’t start working till i adjusted the PATH.
January 8th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Is this compatiable with Acrobat X?