PDF import behaving strangely

[The Alien]

Another interesting observation (don't know if it's relevant or not, but I'll just throw it in).
In C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Designer Pro X\19\Filters\ENG\PDFImport\ there is an executable called pdf2xar.exe
Using pdf2xar.exe in command prompt, I was able to convert a basic PDF to a XAR file just fine. You just have to read the instructions and the rest is easy (Usage: pdf2xar input.pdf output.xar [options]). The output XAR file was valid.

[handrawn]

thinking more of a security program that installs third party firewall, ransomeware protection and the like.. ok was just a thought..

Not that I know of. I checked my Windows Settings > Apps and Adobe Acrobat DC is the only PDF-related application in the list as far as I can see.

but you may have other apps. just like xara, that can open/export/edit PDF ?

[handrawn]

cross posted

that is the app that that designer uses

so it seems the link designer and that app is broken/blocked ?

[Acorn]

Get a guess here.

Try CMD > C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Designer Pro X\19\Filters\ENG\PDFImport>regsvr32 PDFImport.dll.

The exe probably works as it can find the DLL in the same directory, XDPXv19 might need to be told.

Acorn

[Chris M]

Does the UAC (Do you want to allow this app...) appear every time you start Xara?

This would stop the drag and drop feature.

[handrawn]

true... and could of course try pulling down the UAC so it is off, before reinstalling; not without risk and a bit of a last resort, but i've known it fix things in the past where permissions have not been set correctly; shouldn't really need to do it these days...

if what acorn sugessted in post #24 does not work you might consider it though... if so, do a full AV scan before you start, make sure you reset the UAC to where it was afterwards and then do another full AV scan straight away just in case

something sure sounds corrupted; you could do a full checkdisk - this will take a very long time with modern very large drives though, but it will identify disk issues that sfc, which is basically a system level check, may have missed

see here for UAC windows vista-10/11
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...windows-vista/

see here for chkdsk [you may be able to run this from your AV]
https://www.lifewire.com/chkdsk-command-2625838
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ommands/chkdsk

[The Alien]

thinking more of a security program that installs third party firewall, ransomeware protection and the like.. ok was just a thought..



but you may have other apps. just like xara, that can open/export/edit PDF ?

Yeah, the only other programs that can open/export PDF files are the basic MS Office programs that I have. I don't have anything that can edit PDF files to my knowledge.

Get a guess here.

Try CMD > C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Designer Pro X\19\Filters\ENG\PDFImport>regsvr32 PDFImport.dll.

The exe probably works as it can find the DLL in the same directory, XDPXv19 might need to be told.

Acorn

Hmm, did this but it still doesn't work. It says the DLL was registered successfully, like with the "conventional" method posted above. But the import/export issue persists.
Also tried copying PDFImport.dll into the main executable folder and registering that, but that didn't solve the issue either.

Does the UAC (Do you want to allow this app...) appear every time you start Xara?

This would stop the drag and drop feature.

No, the UAC only appears if I run it as admin manually or if I enable the option to run it as admin by default in the shortcut properties. Even with UAC disabled, the drag and drop of a PDF onto the XDP window is blocked.

true... and could of course try pulling down the UAC so it is off, before reinstalling; not without risk and a bit of a last resort, but i've known it fix things in the past where permissions have not been set correctly; shouldn't really need to do it these days...

if what acorn sugessted in post #24 does not work you might consider it though... if so, do a full AV scan before you start, make sure you reset the UAC to where it was afterwards and then do another full AV scan straight away just in case

something sure sounds corrupted; you could do a full checkdisk - this will take a very long time with modern very large drives though, but it will identify disk issues that sfc, which is basically a system level check, may have missed

see here for UAC windows vista-10/11
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...windows-vista/

see here for chkdsk [you may be able to run this from your AV]
https://www.lifewire.com/chkdsk-command-2625838
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...ommands/chkdsk

The full checkdisk, which took place during the next system boot, found no errors.
Full virus scan (ESET Internet Security) found no malware either.
I disabled my antivirus afterwards, disabled UAC and reinstalled XDP. Registered the DLL as before (both methods, just to make sure) and ran XDP as admin. Still no PDF import/export.


While going through my event viewer logs in search for the chkdsk log, I came across a couple of Xara-related errors:

Faulting application name: Service_rel_u_x64_vc16.exe, version: 5.15.36.11, time stamp: 0x6202376b
Faulting module name: Qt5CoreMx64Qt5.15.1.dll, version: 5.15.1.0, time stamp: 0x5f74976c
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x00000000000203e8
Faulting process id: 0x2698
Faulting application start time: 0x01d84e9a1a7d8b2f
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Designer Pro X\19\UPS\Service_rel_u_x64_vc16.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Xara\Xara Designer Pro X\19\UPS\Qt5CoreMx64Qt5.15.1.dll
Report Id: 8f645711-fb74-4e5c-a1ee-c17bd9823522
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Not sure if these could be related to my issue. They seem to related to the Magix update service, so probably not relevant. But I thought I'd post them just in case.

[RKissane]

Have you tried installing an old version of Xara and seeing if that works. Based on what you are describing I don't think it will make a change unless it fixes something in the registry.

Download Libreoffice and install, there is no charge you can make a donation if you want. In Writer you can import PDF and check and see if that works. The link is:
https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/

I think that if Libreoffice works then you are going to have to have a program that can do a deep uninstall of Xara. When you do a regular uninstall it does not get all of the settings in the registry so you would need a program that does this. You probably have some setting that is corrupted and will not reset during reinstall unless it is fully removed. I have had this happen before with other programs. I have not had to do this in a number of years so I can't recommend a program now that does this type of work.

Ray

[handrawn]

yeh.. I build my own system and have restore points I can go back to, and if all else fails I can spend a day rebuilding from fresh windows install.. tend to find that quicker than trying to fix a deep seated registry issue, but it is not an option for everyone...

[MB365]

@ The Alien. Even though this is a Magix installer, let us see if we can help. Please contact us at https://www.xara.com/contact-us/