Fix problems printing to PDF in Windows

The first thing to keep in mind is that precisely the PDF They are used in all types of environments, both professional, domestic, or related to education. What’s more, on many occasions these specific files are used for official documentation. The Microsoft operating system and many of its applications try to make it easier for us to use these files. It is precisely for all this that when printing documents in many Windows programs, we find the option Microsoft Print to PDF.

Convert office files From Word or Excel to PDF

It will not be of great use when dumping the content of other office files to a new PDF. This is something that we can even carry out from programs of the magnitude of Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Hence precisely the importance and widespread use of this integrated functionality.

But sometimes this useful functionality can present us with some problems. It is for all this reason that below we will see the possible solutions for the possible failure that Microsoft Print to PDF may present to us. As you probably already know, this allows users to save documents and websites as PDFs on their computers. This is a feature that works in a multitude of applications. etc. To use it, just press the keys Ctrl + P on the keyboard and select Microsoft Print to PDF in the printers section.

Fix problems with Microsoft Print to PDF

But as we mentioned before, sometimes, due to an error, Microsoft Print to PDF does not work. In fact some users have reported that this feature does not work in programs like Edge, or with many other compatible applications installed on your computer with Windows 10.

Therefore and at this point we are going to see some useful solutions that will help us solve the failure. Of course, before starting these methods to solve the problem, it is recommended first to check if there are any Windows updates pending to be installed.

Check the contents of the user box

Sometimes when executing the Microsoft Print to PDF command in an Internet browser, the mime saves the Web page as PDF in the default directory. However, it does not show us any informational storage dialog box on the screen. In this case, the downloaded files may be available in any of the following locations and we think the process has failed:

C:/Users/USUARIO
C:/Users/USUARIO/Documentos

Browse the name of the new PDF file

On the other hand, we must know that the new file in PDF format that we are creating must have the correct name, otherwise the process will fail. With this, what we want to tell you is that this name must not contain commas or other special characters. Therefore, if it contains commas or special characters of some kind, Windows will create it with a size of zero bytes and we will not be able to find it in the destination folder.

This can create confusion or lead us to think that the printing feature itself does not work, but it was actually our fault.

Deactivate and reactivate the function

On certain occasions

it may be the case that re-enabling the Print to PDF function can help us if it is failing. This is something that we are going to achieve in a simple way, as we will show you below. At this point the first thing we have to do is write Windows Features in the search box from the system taskbar.

Once the new window corresponding to it appears on the screen, among the many functions that will appear here, we search for Print in Microsoft PDF. Next, all we have to do is uncheck the box to disable it. We click OK to save the settings and restart the computer. Once Windows is up and running again, we repeat the same steps and activate the function again.

Set Microsoft Print to PDF as the default printer

Another possible solution to a failure in the printing function that we are talking about is to set Microsoft Print to PDF as the default printer. To achieve this that we are telling you, the first thing we have to do is start the Control Panel. Once in the new window we go to the section of Hardware and sound and click on Devices and Printers. Next, in the Printers section we find the Microsoft Print to PDF function.

Now we only have to click with the right mouse button on this entry and select Set as default printer.

Change the location of your browser’s download folder

If after trying the aforementioned methods we still have the problem with the PDF function, we will try another change. Specifically, we refer to the possibility of trying to change the download location of the files established in web browsers. After changing the default download location, check if the problem is resolved or not.

For example, if we focus on the most used browser in the world, Google Chrome, this is something that we can do from the section of Setting. once in it we will not have to go to Downloads / Location.

Here we will already have the possibility of establishing a disk path in which by default we want the files downloaded in the program to be saved. In the same way, the PDF files that we want with the desired websites will be saved in the same location.

Update Microsoft Print to PDF driver

This problem also occurs due to a faulty or corrupt driver in Windows. Because of this we can update the Print to PDF driver and check if this helps to fix it. To do this, all we have to do is open the Device Manager, for example by right-clicking on the Start menu. In the new window that appears we will see an extensive list of PC components, so we open the Print Queues section.

Then we will find the entry for Microsoft Print to PDF, so we right-click on it and select Update driver.