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?

1. 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).
2. Uninstall eXPert PDF Pro 4. If you have RevoUninstaller do not use it; just uninstall PDF Pro 4 normally.
3. Download eXPert PDF Pro 6 from here.
4. Install eXPert PDF Pro 6 normally.
5. 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>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!