Customizing PDF-XChange Products
The PDF-XChange products - notably PDF-XChange Editor and PDF-Tools - contain a wide range of options for customization. The products can be customized during installation via the installation switches or using a transform, and/or after installation via the application UI (note that these changes are stored in the registry and exportable to file). Additionally, settings can be enforced via Group Policy. Although many elements of customization can be performed either before or after installation, both methods have certain advantages over the other:
Customizing before installation has the following advantages:
•The option of licensing on a per-machine basis (but note that license keys passed to an installer can only be for "all users" on a given system).
•The ability to set initial values for the products, such as file associations, mime-types and default printers (but note that Windows 10 limits an installer's ability to set its associated product as a default product).
•The ability to enable/disable specific product features - it is preferable to install only the desired features rather than install all features and disable the features that are not required.
•Users being free to customize any options that are not enforced.
Customizing after installation has the following advantages:
•The option of licensing on a per-user basis.
•The ability to modify the UI (toolbars and tools).
•The ability to customize the products for groups of users that have common needs.
•Better update management. Note that although it is possible to exclude the PDF-XChange Updater during installation, managing it after installation via Group Policy offers greater granularity and control.
•The option of applying security policies (these are not available to installers as they take the form of Active Directory Group Policy objects).
•The ability to enforce a user experience via Group Policy.
Settings Storage
The settings for most of the PDF-XChange applications (with the exception of some options for PDF-XChange Printer Standard and PDF-XChange Printer Lite) are stored in memory and, on program close, are written to the Windows registry on a per-user basis and organized into sub-keys of:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tracker Software
If a user makes a change to the product preferences, customizes the UI or accepts an option from a dialog box, then the changes are saved in memory and written to the Windows registry when the application is closed. The best method for importing/exporting settings is for users of PDF-XChange Editor and PDF-Tools to save their settings to file for subsequent use, as opposed to exporting settings from the Windows registry. This is because settings files contain a much wider range of settings, including file history, presets, trusted/untrusted lists for files, attachments and websites, user-specified places such as Dropbox, One Drive and Sharepoint accounts, custom stamp collections, custom tools and spell-checker learning. Users can load settings files subsequently and on any installation of the software on any machine.
Note that when settings are imported in a settings file, or changed via manipulation of the Windows registry, the changes are not permanent and users are free to deviate from them as desired. Therefore this approach is best in cases where the configuration is considered a starting place as opposed to a rigid policy.
Enforcing Customizations
A Group Policy and one of PDF-XChange's Active Directory Administrative Templates can be used in order to enforce settings. Policy settings override user-defined settings and are always used when conflicts arise. Policy settings are located in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Tracker Software
Note that the customization that Group Policies can enforce do not cover all customizations available via the UI of the products.