How to configure PDF iFilter for SharePoint Server 2010 or Search Server 2010

Introduction

I recently installed and configured Search Server 2010 Express on my VMware machine for evaluation purposes. Once I configured basic steps to configure Search Centre site and necessary settings, I decided to install PDF iFilter (x64). Last year, I posted a similar article on how to install and configure PDF iFilter for SharePoint 2007 (64bit), which can be found at http://www.mossgurus.com/adnan/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=9. I didn't find a single decent article on Google, which clearly explain the process of installing and configuring PDF iFilter for SharePoint Server 2010 or Search Server 2010 Express edition. So I decided to follow my own article and I was hoping that it should be straight forward to install and configure PDF iFilter for SharePoint 2010. Apart from updating the registry settings required to update GUID for .pdf, remaining steps are similar.

Follow the steps below to install and configure PDF iFilter on SharePoint Server 2010 or Search Server Express 2010.

1. Install PDF iFilter 9.0 (64 bit) from here.
2. Download PDF icon file from pdf16.gif and copy at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\.
3. Add the following entry in docIcon.xml file, which can be found at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML.
   XML

   <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf16.gif" /> 

4. Add PDF file type on the Manage File Type page under Search Service Application.
5. Open registry by executing regedit on the Start --> Run.
6. Navigate to the following location:

   \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\
   14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension 

7. Right-click Extension, a menu will appear.
8. Click New--> Key to create a new key for .pdf. See screen shot below:

   

9. Enter .pdf and save key.

   

10. Now add the following GUID in the default value as shown in the figure below.

    {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603} 

    

11. If you are configuring SharePoint Server 2010, then restart Search service by executing the following command on the command line:

    net stop osearch 
    net start osearch 

12. If you are configuring PDF iFilter on Search Server 2010, then restart the SharePoint Server Search 14 service as shown in the figure below:

    

13. Perform incremental to include PDF files.
14. PDF iFilter is successfully configured. Now you can search for the content of PDF file. See screen shot below:

    

Note: SharePoint Server 2010 or Search Server 2010 Express provides out of the box search support for .ZIP files, so you download and have to install Microsoft Filter pack as you used to do with MOSS 2007.

I do hope that you will find this article useful. Please leave your comments.

History

• 19^th May, 2010: Initial post