Microsoft Print to PDF is the native (or built-in) PDF printer in Windows 10, which you don’t need to install. This utility is available for Windows 10 software packages that incorporate print options. When you select to print something, you can then choose to print with a Microsoft Print to PDF printer instead of your standard one.
The Microsoft Print to PDF feature saves your document or image as a PDF file within a folder. Thereafter, it will usually print the saved PDF file. So, it’s a pretty straightforward feature to utilize that saves users needing to manually convert files to PDF format before printing them.
However, the Microsoft Print to PDF feature doesn’t always work as expected for some users. Error messages can pop up for some users when they try to utilize Microsoft Print to PDF. Some users have also said their browsers become unresponsive when clicking Print to PDF, and they don’t see any Save As dialog box window. In other cases, the PDF files generated don’t open in Adobe Portable Document Format software.
When Microsoft Print to PDF in Windows 10 is not working as expected, various potential resolutions might fix it. If you need to fix the Microsoft Print to PDF in Windows 10, follow the troubleshooting steps below to find a potential resolution.
How to Fix Print to PDF Windows 10 Not Working
Method 1. Check the User Folder
Some users get confused when a Save As window doesn’t open for saving the PDF files. If a Save window doesn’t open, the software might save the files to a default folder automatically. Therefore, it’s recommended that users who don’t see a Save As window when selecting to Print to PDF check if PDFs have been saved to their user folders. You can check your user folder in Windows 10 as follows.
Step 1: First, click the “File Explorer” button on Windows 10’s toolbar.
Step 2: Next, copy this folder path with the Ctrl + C hotkey: C:\users\%username%.
Step 3: Paste the copied path into File Explorer’s folder path bar by pressing the Ctrl + V hotkey and press the Enter key.
Step 4: Your user folder will then open. Check if that folder includes any PDF files for documents you tried to print with Print to PDF.
Step 5: If you can’t find any PDF files there, try opening the C:\users\%username%\Documents path in File Explorer. Check if there are any PDF files there.
Step 6: Open any discovered PDF files you tried to print with Print to PDT within Portable Document Format software. Then you can print the files from the PDF software.
Method 2. Set Microsoft Print to PDF as Default Printer
Step 1: Right-click the Start menu’s button to open the Win + X menu.
Step 2: Click “Run” on the menu to open that accessory’s window.
Step 3: Type ‘Control Panel’ in Run’s text box as in the shot directly below.
Step 4: Click “OK” to open the Control Panel.
Step 5: Then click “Devices and Printers” in the Control Panel to open the window in the screenshot directly below.
Step 6: Right-click Microsoft Print to PDF to select the “Set as default printer” option.
Step 7: Press the “OK” button on the Printers dialog box window that opens.
Method 3. Disable Print to PDF Feature and Enable it Again
Step 1: This resolution is especially recommended if there’s no Print to PDF option in Windows 10 software. First, click the “Type here to search” magnifying glass button on Windows 10’s taskbar.
Step 2: Input ‘Windows features’ in the search tool’s text box.
Step 3: Then click Turn Windows features on or off in the search results to open Windows Features.
Step 4: If “Microsoft Print to PDF” is not already selected, select that checkbox. However, deselect the “Microsoft Print to PDF” checkbox if you find it’s selected.
Step 5: Press the “OK” button.
Step 6: Thereafter, restart your desktop or laptop.
Step 7: Users who deselected the “Microsoft Print to PDF” checkbox will need to reinstall that feature. Open Windows Features again, select the “Microsoft Print to PDF” checkbox, and then click the “OK” option.
Method 4. Reinstall the Microsoft Print to PDF Driver
Step 1: Some users might need to reinstall the Print to PDF driver to fix issues with that feature. First, launch the Run accessory via the Win + X menu.
Step 2: Enter ‘Control Panel’ (without quote marks) in Run’s Open box, and click the “OK” option.
Step 3: Select “Devices and Printers” to open that Control Panel applet
Step 4: Right-click Microsoft Print to PDF and select “Remove device” on the context menu.
Step 5: Click “Yes” on the Remove Device confirmation prompt that opens.
Step 6: Then click the “Add a printer” option in the Devices and Printer applet to open the window shown directly below.
Step 7: Click “The printer I want isn’t listed” to open an Add a printer window.
Step 8: Select the “Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings” radio button.
Step 9: Click “Next” to go to the next step.
Step 10: Select the “Use an existing port” radio button, and then choose “PORTPROMPT: (Local Port)” on the drop-down menu for that option.
Step 11: Press the “Next” button to proceed to printer driver options.
Step 12: Click “Microsoft” on the Manufacturer list.
Step 13: Then select “Microsoft Print to PDF” on the Printers list, and click the “Next” option to continue.
Step 14: Select the “Replace the current driver” radio button, and click “Next” again.
Step 15: Click “Next” a final time to reinstall the Microsoft Print to PDF Windows 10 driver.
Step 16: Thereafter, the Add Printer window should say, “You’ve successfully added Microsoft Print to PDF.” Press the “Finish” button to exit.
Step 17: Restart Windows 10 after reinstalling the Microsoft Print to PDF driver. Then try printing with Print to PDF again.
As an additional note, make sure you don’t include any commas in PDF file names when saving them with Microsoft Print to PDF. Adding commas to PDF file names generates 0 KB PDF files. Those files are corrupted and don’t open.
Conclusion
Those are some of the most widely confirmed resolutions for fixing Microsoft Print to PDF. Therefore, it’s likely that those resolutions will fix Print to PDF in Windows 10 not working for the majority of users. If those resolutions aren’t enough, however, you could try out some of the alternative third-party PDF printer tools. ClawPDF and BullZip PDF Printer are two noteworthy freeware alternatives that are available for Windows 10.
