Geeks everywhere have embraced the lightweight and free Foxit PDF reader instead of using Adobe reader, but did you realize that you can index PDF files without Adobe installed on your computer?

You might be thinking… isn’t it working already? What you don’t realize is that Adobe Reader also installs an IFilter that helps Windows index your documents.

Installation

Since our goal is to banish Adobe reader from our system, we’ll need to fix download the IFilter and install it. Before it will work we’ll need to rebuild the index.

Type in Indexing into the start menu search box to launch Indexing Options.

Now you’ll need to click on the Advanced button.

And hit the Rebuild button on this page. The rebuild is going to take quite a while, so you might want to do it before you go to bed.

Once finished, you should be running on Foxit software instead of Adobe.

Download Foxit PDF IFilter