"The Acrobat PDFMaker Server could not be loaded" - a possible solution?

(My configuration: Adobe Acrobat 7 and Office 2000 running on Windows
2000, everything fully patched, with all the latest service packs and
updates)

For the past couple of months, whenever I've hit the 'Convert to Adobe
PDF' button in Excel or Word, I've got the error message "The Acrobat
PDFMaker Server could not be loaded. Do you want to run the installer
in repair mode?". Obviously, the first time it happened, I tried the
repair option, but it didn't work. Subsequently, I've spent DAYS
looking for solutions, and althought they seemed to work for some
people, none of them worked for me. I didn't really want to re-
install, as the (ridiculous) number of reboots involved would mean it
could waste yet another day.

I've just tried clicking the button again with SysInternal's RegMon
(registry monitor) running in the background, and it showed that Excel
was trying to access the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths
\AcroDist.exe

, and failing - it didn't exist in the registry.

So, I created the key, changed the (Default) entry to:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Distillr\acrodist.exe

, and added a new String Value called Path, which I set to:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Distillr\

And now it all appears to be working! (I didn't even have to restart
Excel.)

Now, I'm aware this may not be the complete solution to the problem;
if that's the case, I hope it points someone in the right direction!
(I'm still none the wiser as to why the problem started occurring in
the first place - all I can think of is that around that time, I
installed Publisher 2003, but that may be completely unrelated.)

Nate's approach appeared to work for me as well.

Configuration: Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2 and Office 2007 running on Windows XP SP3 with all patches, updates and service packs applied.

(Check the path to acrodist.exe on your system.)

[Twoschmoov]

The config for this case is;
O/S - XP SP3
Apps - Adobe Acrobat 8.0 Standard, Adobe PageMaker 7.0, MS Office 2003

There was a conflict with an older version of Adobe PDFMaker that required an installation of Adobe Distiller 6.0 when Adobe Distiller 8.0 was already installed from a previous installation of Adobe Acrobat Standard. So I removed from the registry any reference to acrodist.exe to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\. Then verified or added in the Registry;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\App Paths
\AcroDist.exe, C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\acrodist.exe, and added a new String Value called Path, which I set to:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\

Then I deleted C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Acrobat folders.

I did follow direction from various forum posting even re-registering certian .dll files, but this worked for this situation.

During the installation of Adobe PageMaker 7.0, it says Adobe Distiller is required for installation. Obviously thats not true. Not very backwards tech-friendly if the software cant detect a newer version of itself and not corrupt the newer software - Thanks Adobe for the hours lost figuring this out!

After following your regedit instructions, I can now successfully use PDFmaker functions from within my Office 2003 apps! WinXP Service Pack 3, Acrobat 7.1 Pro, and new work PC where all this software was just loaded....

[Ranfar]

Hello,
I have Office 2007, running on Windows XP SP3 and have the same issue when trying to save as PDF from a Word document. There are links on the document that I want active on the PDF form, or I would just print to PDF instead. Print to PDF works fine, but Save as... gives me "The Acrobat PDFMaker Server could not be loaded, do you want to run the installer in repair mode?"

I looked at your fix to change something in the registry, but do not understand how to when the AcroDist.exe is not there.

I apologize as I am not sure what steps you took to accomplish:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\App Paths
\AcroDist.exe

, and failing - it didn't exist in the registry.

(What do I select to change the default?) So, I created the key, changed the (Default) entry to:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Distillr\acrodist.exe

(Where do I add the string?) , and added a new String Value called Path, which I set to:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Distillr\

I'd hate to have to reinstall, but if this works I could use it.
Thanks!

[Rune-]

It apparently also works when using Adobe Acrobat Standard 9. I installed a trial version of 8 Pro because I needed to use Batch Processing. After uninstall, nothing worked :)

The approach above worked. However no registry by the name AcroDist.exe was to be found, so had to create that and the below references to the Default-key and the Path.

My acrodist.exe was placed in the following folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\

And by the way thank you to Adobe for making standard and pro very compatible!