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For some time, my QuickBooks Pro software would freeze (and ultimately have to be terminated) when ever I would attempt to “reconcile” my bank statement. Additionally, when printing from other programs I would find that my computer’s default printer had been inexplicably changed to the “QuickBooks PDF Converter” device. Following are the steps I took to correct both these issues.

I’m using QuickBooks Pro 2009 on a Vista Home Premium 64-bit computer. From my research, it seems that this issue occurs most often on 64-bit versions of XP and Vista, however, there are users on 32-bit XP/Vista that have the same problem. While I have only personally tested the following solution on Vista x64 and QuickBooks pro 2009, it should work on any version of QuickBooks (at least recent version; 2007 onwards) and on either 32-bit or 64-bit versions of XP/Vista. Please let me know in the comments if this did or did not work for you!

Method 1:
This is the easier of the two methods and should be attempted first. If it does not solve the problem for you, go on to try method 2.

1. Download this file to your desktop.
2. Created a new folder on your desktop named “PDFDrivers”.
3. Run the file downloaded in step one.
4. When prompted for an “Unzip to folder”, browse to/select the folder created in step 3.
5. Select “Unzip”.
6. Open the “PDFDrivers” folder and run the Install.exe program that you find there.
7. Once the driver install is complete, press “OK”.
8. If you get an error that the “… program might not have installed correctly”, click the link “This program install correctly”.
9. Open the default PDF viewing program you have installed (for most people this will be Adobe Acrobat Reader, Adobe Acrobat, or Foxit).
10. Configure this program to not “display PDFs in web browser.” This option is found in different locations depending on the program you use, but as an example, in Adobe Reader 8, it is under Edit -> Preferences -> Internet -> Web Browser Options.
11. Exit the PDF viewer program.
12. Restart your computer.

Method 2:
This is a more drawn out method, but may work if method 1 failed. We will be modifying the printer QuickBooks uses to make PDF files. Be sure you perform the following steps while logged in as an administrator.

1. Go to the control panel and then the “Printers” applet (“Printers and Faxes” in XP).
2. Right-click on the printer named “QuickBooks PDF Converter”.
3. Select “Properties” from the pop-up menu. If using Vista with UAC enabled, go to “Run as administrator” -> “Properties”.
4. In the “QuickBooks PDF Converter Properties” window that opens, click the “Ports” tab.
5. On this new page, click “Add Port…”
6. Highlight “Local Port” in the new window that opens, and then click “New Port…” (Do NOT click “New Port Type…”)
7. When asked for a port name, type “NUL:”, without quotes. Not there is only one “L” and it is followed by a colon.
8. Press “OK”.
9. Back in the “QuickBooks PDF Converter Properties” window, put a check mark in the box next to the port you just created. Remove check marks from any other ports.
10. Click the “Advanced” tab.
11. Click the drop down box next to “Driver:” and select “Amyuni Document Converter XXX” where “XXX” is the highest number available (probably 300 or 303).
12. Click the radio button next to “Spool print documents so…”
13. Uncheck the item “Enable advanced printing features” at the bottom of the page.
14. Click the radio button next to “Print directly to the printer”. This basically undoes the change made in step 12 (which we did in the first place to allow the change in step 13).
15. Press “OK” to get out of any open property or dialog windows.
16. Back in the list of printers, ensure your real printer (and not the “QuickBooks PDF Converter”) is set as the default printer.
17. Restart your computer.

If after using either method you get new printer error messages in QuickBooks, you may need to reset your QuickBooks printer preference file. This will unfortunately remove any special printer settings you may have configured. To do this:

1. Close QuickBooks.
2. Use the Windows search feature (or your favorite file search program) to fin “QBPRINT.QBP”. This will be in your QuickBooks program data directory, which by default on Vista is “C:\Program Data\QuickBooks\2009\”. Obviously, the year will depend on the version of QuickBooks you use.
3. Rename this file to “QBPRINT.QBP.bak”.
4. Start QuickBooks.

If you need to revert back to your old printer preferences, just delete the new “QBPRINT.QBP”, the rename the “QBPRINT.QBP.bak” to “QBPRINT.QBP”.