Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Error "The file AdobePDF.dll is needed" installing CS3 on 64-bit Windows

This came up when installing Adobe CS3 on Windows 7 64-bit.

The fix is here. Thanks to Adobe for providing this.

Solution

Windows Vista 64-bit

In order for Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional to be supported, the application will need to be updated after installation.
  1. When the error occurs, click Cancel to exit the dialog and continue with the installation.
  2. Install the Microsoft has Hot Fix as documented in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #930627 available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930627.
  3. Update Acrobat to version 8.1 or later. The Acrobat update is available on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/support/downloads/.

Windows 7 64-bit

Manually extract the file "adobepdf.dll_64" from the data1.cab file before installing Acrobat. When the prompt appears, navigate to this file and select it.
  1. Navigate to the folder that contains the setup.exe file for your Acrobat 8 installation.
  2. Locate the file "data1.cab" and open it (this may require a third party compression utility, such as WinZip).
  3. Inside the content listings, locate the file "adobepdf.dll_64" and copy it to your desktop.
  4. Run the installer setup.exe and when the prompt appears, choose browse and select the file you copied to the desktop.
    Note: If the file cannot be selected, change the file type drown down in the dialog box to "Files of All Types", or rename the file to "adobepdf.dll" by removing "_64" from the end of the file extension.

6 comments:

  1. Since Adobe provided this solution the referred to page has been changed by Microsoft so the fix no longer works for Windows 7.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The windows 7 solution still works, I just tested it. Download the linked dll file and when prompted choose it locally. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had a problem copying the DLL file to my desktop - the setup refused to see it there. I instead copied the DLL to the root location on the C: drive and everything installed correctly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the tip, I'm glad you got it working.

      Delete
  4. I'm using windows 8 but think this solution will work for me as well. How do I navigate to the file while installing Adobe Creative Suite CS3? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Todd, If I remember right, I found the cab file and extracted the necessary file and just put it on the desktop. Then I proceeded with the install as usual. During the install when it prompts for the file, I just point it to the desktop and it finds it and continues. I hope that works for you!

    ReplyDelete