
OfficeJet "Scan To" Hack
Problem
The "Scan To" feature of HP 7100 series
all-in-one devices doesn't support Acrobat 6.
Solution
Using regedit, set registry key
HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\5.0\InstallPath to the Acrobat 6
install directory (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Acrobat, by
default).
Background
The HP OfficeJet 7130xi all-in-one device has a "Scan to" button
on the front panel that can be used to send the scanned document
directly to certain applications on the attached machine. The
target applications can be set in the "Scan To Settings" dialog
of the HP Director software. Unfortunately, that list doesn't
include Acrobat 6.
A little digging with
Regmon
revealed that the HP
software, when populating the list of available applications,
does so by scanning the registry for certain keys corresponding to
known applications. If the application is found, it's listed as
an option in the dialog. If the HP software doesn't know about
an application then it won't be listed.
The HP software does look for the presence of Acrobat 4 or 5.
For Acrobat 5, the registry key checked is
HKCU\Software\Adobe\Adobe Acrobat\5.0\InstallPath. The value
of this key is the path of the Acrobat 5 executable.
The HP software can be faked out by adding this key to your
registry with a pointer to Acrobat 6. (The
communication mechanism used between the scanner and
Acrobat apparently works just as well for Acrobat 6 as for
Acrobat 5.) The default installation location for Acrobat 6
is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Acrobat.