Clear Print Jobs in Windows Registry in Acrobat Distiller\PrinterJob Control

Report · Jul 30, 2016

Each time I use the virtual Adobe PDF printer to create a PDF file on my Desktop PC running Windows 8.1 Pro-64-bit, i.e., whether it's from a newspaper article on a web page, or from an e-mail, PDF data is being stored in the Windows 8.1 Pro Registry under:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Distiller\PrinterJobControl

How do I clear the data without messing up the Windows Registry?

The list of PDF files specified by their their path is getting really long. There are even PDF listings in the above Registry Key for files no longer on my PC as I'd burned the files to a DVD and deleted them from the original sub-folder in MY DOCUMENTS.

I would assume that the PDF listings are for successful print jobs. I also did find one PDF listing for a file that had been mistakenly saved to the wrong sub-folder, which I'd moved to its correct sub-folder in MY DOCUMENTS. However, the file was still listed in the registry as being in the folder it was originally saved into.

Any good advice on remedying this would be appreciated. Please contact me at bubbie021@gmail.com. Thank you!

P.S. I'm still running Windows 8.1 Pro-64 bit as the upgrade installation to Windows 10 yesterday failed 5 times, and I did not want to have to do a clean install which would evaporate all my applications on my Samsung SSD Drive (Drive:\C), My data (Documents, Photos, Videos, Music are all stored on a Seagate SATA drive (Drive: D\)

Report · Aug 02, 2016

Hi bubbie021 ,

I would like to mention that this behavior is by design.

Could you please tell why do you want to delete these entries in registry?

Thank You!

Shivam

Report · Aug 02, 2016

There are at least 60 references to PDF files, some of them no longer on my PC as they've been burned to a DVD, some of them having been moved to another sub-folder.

Ive been saving articles from the Web or from email. How do I delete the listings, especially those referring to files no longer on my PC.

Sent from my iPhone

Miriam Klepper

Report · Aug 03, 2016

Yes, there will always be files in here that no longer exist. But why do you care? It would never occur to me to go round deleting stuff. Presumably you have a problem or concern that has led you here.

Report · Aug 03, 2016

I am a retired librarian. I save ąlot of articles from the internet on a variety of topics as PDF. I also save as PDF from the Web or from my Mozilla Thunderbird E-mail client sales receipts for online purchases. I later burn to Dv's the PDF'S I've created. I then delete the PDF files from my hard drive. There shouldn't be listings in the Registry for files no longer on the hard drive or for files I've moved to another folder on the hard drive

I also don't need the Registry to get bloated with listings for files thatv are either moved or deleted.

Sent from my iPhone

Miriam Klepper

Report · Jan 12, 2017

Hi,

the problem with that behaviour is, that it will increase your NTUSER.DAT file to a problematic size for roaming profiles. In our case the NTUSER.DAT growth to >100MB. If you have limited profile size you have to delete the entrys, and i dont see the benefit to store thousands of entrys no one ever needs again. If you could just limit that to a bunch of entrys if you need them for any purposes would be really appreciated.

Best regards

Report · Aug 03, 2016

I feel your concern is misplaced. This is insignificant. Tidy is good, but it is easy to do more harm than good. If somftware does something, my advice is to leave it until it becomes an actual problem, rather than looking untidy.

I can see value in a list of recent work. Recent lists are NOT cleared up when files are removed or moved; the cost would be enormous.

Report · Aug 06, 2016

When I originally posted my question, I mistakenly thought there were about 60 References to PDF files in the Windows 8.1 Registry's HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Distiller\PrinterJobControl key.

I just went into the Registry to count how many there actually were listed there. If I counted correctly, there are 570 listings for PDF files created by Acrobat Distiller, that referenced files that were supposed to be in the Documents Folder. Many of these files no longer exist on my PC as they've been burned to a DVD disk. Others were moved to another folder because I might have saved them to the wrong place, but were still listed as being in the original file location..

My PC is starting up from a boot very slow, perhaps because of Registry bloat.

Last week, when the Upgrade to Windows 10 was still free, I tried upgrading and and the installation failed 5 times. A Microsoft Assurant tech was working with me thru 4 of the 5 failed upgrade installs. There might just be too much bloat in my registry. For many years, I used Auslogics Boostspeed to clean up the Windows Registry. The last time I purchased the product via their reseller, they offered me a free scan of my PC and told me that I had a nasty virus on my PC that would have to be removed at a cost of about $400. Not only did I complain to the parent company and to a host of consumer agencies, I uninstalled the software and finally got a refund. I contacted Trend Micro which is the company that provides my security software, and their Premium Support tech ran all manner of tests over a period of several hours to identify and eliminate the virus. No virus was found.

CCleaner Pro has a registry module that lists potential problems. It doesn't look at the Acrobat Distiller key, unless the key was either faulty or obsolete.

Since Acrobat Distiller leaves crumbs in the Windows Registry for files created by the Adobe PDF printer, I now have to resort to using Omnipage Ultimate's Scansoft PDF to convert Web Pages, and E-mails to PDF. Scansoft PDF doesn't leave any crumbs in the Windows Registry. I just have to make sure that I reduce the file size in Acrobat DC Pro after I open the file.

Report · Aug 07, 2016

I think your concern is misplaced. Of course you can delete these entries and see whether it magically makes your PC faster; my advice would be to export this part of the registry so you can put it back if anything is broken, which is a real possibility.

Registry bloat, if it is a real thing at all rather than an invention of the people who try to sell us junk tools, is not just about how big the registry is, or how many keys. The registry is designed to work efficiently at very large sizes. Any effect comes from things in the registry that make things happen (like, run an EXE at startup time, or a DLL when you click). Far more damage comes I feel from running clean up tools, which I would not let near my computer, ever, and which are often free and have questionable motives.