You got eXPert PDF 4 Pro for free. Now upgrade to eXPert PDF 6 Pro for free!
March 23, 2009 111
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Update 7/24/2010: Everyone can now get eXPert PDF 6 Pro for free! Visit http://dottech.org/freebies/17294 for more details.
Recall how on 3/13/09 I posted about how you could get eXPert PDF 4 Pro for free. Well recently I posted about the same deal on Gizmo’s and someone posted a comment on how they were able to attain eXPert PDF 5 Pro for free from the developer’s website. This got me curious so I tried to install PDF 5 Pro. To my surprise PDF 5 Pro was registered once I installed it. Now I knew that the download from VisageSoft of PDf 5 Pro was a trial version so I investigated a little found out the reason PDF 5 Pro was registered is that PDF 5 Pro recognized the registration information from PDF 4 Pro. This got me curious even more so I uninstalled PDF 5 Pro and installed PDF 6 Pro (the latest version). To my surprise (again), PDF 6 Pro also recognized the registration information from PDF 4 Pro.
Now being the self-righteous prick that I am, I emailed the developer letting him/her know about this because I feel that the original intent of the freebie did not include a free upgrade to the latest version (maybe it did, I don’t know). The developer was actually lucky I even did that much because I was still pissed at the fact that the developer had yet to respond to an earlier email I sent to them. It does not seem to matter though: Judging by the response from the developer, it does not seem like he/she plans on doing anything about this free upgrade. *Shrug* their loss. I did my fair duty and warned them; in my eyes if they don’t want to plug it, it means it is okay with them to do the upgrade. So enjoy :) (keep in mind you heard it from dotTech first!).
Okay enough of my rant. How to get PDF 6 Pro?
- If you don’t have PDF 4 Pro already, go to the Free eXPert PDF Pro 4 page and get it. Follow all the directions to the last letter (you must follow all the steps including renaming the shortcuts and replacing the help files).
- Uninstall eXPert PDF Pro 4. If you have RevoUninstaller do not use it; just uninstall PDF Pro 4 normally.
- Download eXPert PDF Pro 6 from here.
- Install eXPert PDF Pro 6 normally.
- Run eXPert PDF Pro 6 and make sure it is registered. Check under Help -> About. It should show your registration number. If it says “Trial” that means the registration did not work properly for you. If it does not work properly for you, my only advice is to try it all over again (all the way from the beginning of installing PDF 4 Pro).
This method has been confirmed to work; however some people have trouble with it. As I said above, if it does not work for you, the only advice I have is to try it all over again. Or if you are happy with PDF 4 Pro, just stick with that. Good luck.
Update1:
If you are having trouble getting eXPert PDF 6 Pro to register, try installing eXPert PDF 4 Pro with the following method (thx Paul) and then upgrading to eXPert PDF 6 Pro:
- Download the archived last version of eXPert PDF 4 Pro: click here.
- Goto your local temp directory (if using windows should be here C:\Documents and Settings\**substitute you login account here**\Local Settings\Temp\)
- Now clean this dir up and delete all useless stuff. Don’t worry if you try to delete a temp file that is actively being used, the system will not let you delete it. This will all make sense in the end.
- Now go to install the archived last version, but stop at the first screen.
- Now go back to the temp directory and find the directory that was just created to unpack the files to.
- Copy the file inside that directory called english.cab to another directory (doesn’t matter) BEFORE you cancel this install. YOU NEED THAT FILE.
- Now cancel this install. The install prog deletes this file, but leaves some others behind. You can delete these left over files to clean the directory up again.
- Now run the French version to install it (you should already have gotten the French version by following the directions printed here). Do the same as before and wait for it to unpack into the temp directory.
- Find this newly created temp directory and copy all the files in this directory to another drive. After this is done, you can now cancel the french install.
- Now goto where you saved these files and delete these two files: expertpdf_v4_fra.mst and french.cab
- After this is done, copy the file you got from the archived version (english.cab) to this same directory.
- Now you can install your ENGLISH version of the software. To install the program run expertpdf_v4_enu.msi
Update2:
by littled (see comment below)
SOLUTION FOR VISTA Users of XP are reporting it works also! So XP and Vista.
Hey… I got it working after having many failures. Those who have VISTA/XP may have to do the following:
(see the main instruction above)1. Before you uninstall ver4, open RegEdit and go to the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Visage Software>PDF Printer>Options2. Take note of all the keys and values because you will need to recreate the missing ones once you install ver6.
3. Once you install ver6, open RegEdit and go to the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Visage Software>PDF Printer>OptionsTHEN add these keys (by right-clicking, then NEW):
i. String Value (Value Name: Serial and Value Data: “YOUR ver4 SERIAL”)
ii. DWORD (32-bit) Value (Value Name: ProductID and Value Data: “YOUR ver4 PRODUCT ID”)All the best! Hope it works for you now!
About the author: Ashraf View all posts by Ashraf
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Is it possible everything worked for Ashraf because he installed v5 and then v6? I cannot find v5 to download anywhere – except the trial version.
Ashraf, did you install the v5 trial version and then have it come up as fully registered as the pro version?
TIA.
mike.
Mike,
Good theory but others have gotten v6 just fine w/o installing v5. And yes I installed the trial version of v5; it was detected as registered when I ran it.
Hi,
I also failed the upgrade,with both methods.
I’ve Xphome, SP3.
Also the v5 does appear as trial.
Maybe they did change something after your mail…
If you find a workaround, I’ll try…by then,I’ll stick with the v4
MikeR said he has trouble to rotate page? you might want to try [Exract Pages] above it after specify [Rotate Pages], don’t know why they design application like this, totally not make sense to me.
ps: in v4, XP Pro
The Translate option in the sidebar is broken (can not translate dottech.org/category/favicon.ico)
Ashraf,
“Self-righteous” is a bad description of you although I assume you are being facetious. I appreciate the integrity and humility you show on this site. It has built my trust in what you say and recommend.
Taz
Re Wes:
Many thanks for the info Wes — sorry for this late response but I’ve been away.
I’ll check out your advice on my other PC because (yikes!) I’ve actually given up on this product where my laptop is concerned (I’m using the laptop right now) and so I’ve uninstalled eXPert PDF 4 Pro and junked the downloaded PDF 6.0.
If however it is the case that a task as simple, and as so frequently required, as rotating a page view is being handled by PDF Pro is such ludicrous fashion, then I’m not sure I can be bothered dealing with it anyway.
The combination of Foxit Reader, PDF Creator (virtual printer) and the GOTD PDF to Word Converter seems to be managing everything I need without the arcane complexities of a relatively large app like PDF Pro that can’t even rotate a page without making a pantomime of it.
I got version 4 in English working fine, could not upgrade to v6, BUT
http://www.chip.de/artikel/CHIP-Online-Oster-Special_31221188.html, has eXPert Pro v5 for free, in german though. I upgraded to version 5 just fine using the technique above in update, replacing the english cab file for the german one.
If not version 6 pro, then v5 pro is good enough.
Thanks, Ashraf and guys
Hey guys This just came in on my e-mail and I would love to upgrade to 5 but I don’t speak German so could one of you wonderful gensiuss help me and everybody else out who might want to up grade? thanks Abbasgirl
Author: jda2000
Comment:
I got version 4 in English working fine, could not upgrade to v6, BUT
http://www.chip.de/artikel/CHIP-Online-Oster-Special_31221188.html, has eXPert Pro v5 for free, in german though. I upgraded to version 5 just fine using the technique above in update, replacing the english cab file for the german one.
If not version 6 pro, then v5 pro is good enough.
Thanks, Ashraf and guys
Working on a post as we speak. However the download is soooooo slow from their website it may be an hour or two before I have the post up.
BTW I bet the same delete-resources-content will work. I will confirm after the download is finished.
Abbasgirl,
Just follow the instructions above in update, download both the german version and the archived v5 pro version.
Then substitute the english cab file for the german file, as was the case for the french version.
Then you’ll end up with version 5 Pro in english.
Ok I know I am going to sound really like I …….but I went to the web site and I don’t understand German……so if that is where you are saying to “Just follow the instructions above in update, download both the german version and the archived v5 pro version.” Please start over and say it in english…………I know I can be a pain but I really don’t understand or I wouldn’t ask…. really A
Thanks for all the well laid out instructions. Unfortunately I didn’t read through the updates first as that method of grabbing the english.cab file was so much easier than the original instructions. I was going to give up on PDF4 and install PDF5 but decided to follow the new instructions, load PDF4 and register it and then upgrade to PDF6 skipping over PDF5. Worked like a charm.
Thanks again.
Ok anybody got an answer to my question? Please
Part of this is in english and part of this is in German Help
do you guys receive water mark about trial on printed pdf?
Well, it didn’t work for me. *shrug*
Hi all
I dont know if anyone else has written this, cause i can’t be bothered reading thru everything, so here goes, I was one of those who installed v4 and tried to update to v6, but it didnt work, so i stuck with v5. I have just uninstalled v5 (as Ashraf said to do with v4)and then installed v6 and it seems to have worked.
I must say that I found the hidden meaning from this “free” upgrade to version 6. I found after rebooting my computer the other day I got an error message asking me to upgrade to version 6 or not to load the file during boot. It appears the free upgrade was more of a silent trial to try to force you to upgrade later as it did to me. It was nice while it lasted. Now it’s time for me to go grab version 5 and make use of it. For the user who upgraded version 5 to 6 just like the 4 to 6; I suspect you will have the same issue in a while. I hope you kept the v5 install files.
SOLUTION FOR VISTA
Hey… I got it working after having many failures. Those who have VISTA may have to do the following:
(see the main instruction above)
1. Before you uninstall ver4, open RegEdit and go to the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Visage Software>PDF Printer>Options
2. Take note of all the keys and values because you will need to recreate the missing ones once you install ver6.
3. Once you install ver6, open RegEdit and go to the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Visage Software>PDF Printer>Options
THEN add these keys (by right-clicking, then NEW):
i. String Value (Value Name: Serial and Value Data: “YOUR ver4 SERIAL”)
ii. DWORD (32-bit) Value (Value Name: ProductID and Value Data: “YOUR ver4 PRODUCT ID”)
All the best! Hope it works for you now!
The Solution for Vista offered by littled worked for me!
I tried several different things to upgrade to version 6 previously, but they failed.
Making those changes to the registry did the trick for me.
Thx
Help Ashraf:
Installed v4 and registered no problem. V6 no success. So I tried option 1 downloading the last archived v4 from your link. However when I stop at the first screen I cannot find english.cab but i get 3 files in Temp folder: cmaps.cab instmsi.exe and expertpdf_ver4_enu.msi
pl advise
@Wong: No idea what is up. I personally have not tried that temp-cab-msi method so I can’t help you out there. Sorry! I say just get eXPert PDF 5 Pro.
Thanks for this tip. Solution 2 (by littled) worked for me on WinXP Home SP3. All others tricks failed.
BTW, for French speaking people, you can use this same trick to install ExpertPDF pro 6 french from Avanquest.
Total Uninstall made it easier for me. After comparing the post v4 install with the post v6 install i noticed those two registry keys had been deleted, so i cancelled those changes from within TU and now i have a registered V6.
Many thanks to Ashraf for the tip and to littled for pointing me to the registry.