The Print to PDF option present in the Windows print menu allows you to save your documents in PDF format. It is a very convenient and quick way to convert your Microsoft Word or other text documents to a PDF file. Microsoft Print to PDF allows you to print documents, images, and other media to PDF without the use of any third-party software. However, many users inadvertently delete the option or discover the missing print To PDF feature.
How To Fix A Missing Print to PDF Feature In Windows 11/10
Don’t worry if the Print to PDF option is missing or if you accidentally deleted it from your Windows 11/10 device. We’ll go over these four methods one by one to resolve this issue. Let’s take a look at all four methods first, and then we’ll go over each one briefly.
- Enable Print to PDF Using Windows Features Dialog
- Enable/Disable Print to PDF Using Command Prompt
- Reinstalling Print to PDF Using PowerShell
- Using Printer Wizard To Enable Print to PDF
The most obvious way to restore the Print to PDF feature is to use the Windows Features Dialogue box. However, there are numerous other ways to solve this issue. In this article, we’ll go over four major solutions to this problem.
1] Enable Print to PDF Using Windows Features Dialog
Our Windows 11 and 10 already include a set of extra features known as Optional Features. Some features are pre-installed, while others are available on-demand, which you can manually download and install as needed. If the Print to PDF option is disabled on your PC, you can enable it with a few clicks in the Windows Features Dialog. Let’s take a look at how to easily add and remove Optional Features in Windows.
- Press Windows + R on your keyboard to open the Run utility.
- There, type Optionalfeatures, and then click OK to open the Optional Features dialog. There’s also another way to access it, just navigate through the given path:
Settings > Apps > Optional Features > More Windows Features
- Now, find Microsoft Print to PDF in the Turn Windows features on or off dialog.
- To successfully install the feature, select Microsoft Print to PDF, and finally click OK to install the feature.
- Once the Microsoft Print to PDF is installed, click Close. Now go to the Printer interface and check whether the Print to PDF option is restored.
It is very important to keep in mind that if the Microsoft Print to PDF option was already enabled or selected, then you must unselect and click OK. It will prompt the operating system to uninstall this feature in the correct manner. When it is uninstalled, relaunch the Windows Features Dialog and enable the Print to PDF option to install the driver correctly.
2] Enable/Disable Print to PDF Using Command Prompt or Windows Terminal
Many users prefer to use the Command Prompt, if you’re one of them, then you can use the Deployment Image Service Management (DISM) command-line tool to enable/disable the optional Windows features. You can follow these steps to install Print to PDF using the Command Prompt:
- Open the Run utility by pressing Win + R keys.
- There, type cmd or wt, press and hold the Ctrl + Shift key together and click OK. Doing this will open the Command Prompt or Windows Terminal as administrator.
- Now, in the Command Prompt window, type the command written below to stop the spooler service:
net stop spooler
- This will stop the services successfully, now type the command line given below to disable the Print to PDF feature:
dism /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"Printing-PrintToPDFServices-Features" /NoRestart
- Once it is disabled and the confirmation message appears, type the following command and press Enter. It will enable the feature again.
dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:"Printing-PrintToPDFServices-Features" /NoRestart
- If the installation procedure was successful, you’ll see the Operation completed successfully message. Now you can use the Print to PDF feature on your Windows PC to save documents in PDF format.
3] Reinstalling Print to PDF Using PowerShell
Using PowerShell is yet another great way to enable Print to PDF on your PC using the Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature cmdlet in PowerShell. Here’s how you can do it:
- To open Windows search, press the Windows button on your keyboard. Type powershell, then right-click on Windows PowerShell and select it to Run as Administrator.
- Now, in the PowerShell window, type the command written below to disable the Print to PDF feature.
Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -online -FeatureName Printing-PrintToPDFServices-Features
- Again, type the command to enable Print to PDF using Windows PowerShell:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -online -FeatureName Printing-PrintToPDFServices-Features
- When the commands are executed, you can interpret the Online status as True and the RestartNeeded status as false.
When you’re finally done, close the PowerShell window and launch the document app. Press Win + P to open the printer interface. Print to PDF feature should be accessible now.
4] Using Printer Wizard To Enable Print to PDF
It is probably the easiest method on our list to restore the Print to PDF feature by just adding a new printer from the settings. You can follow the steps mentioned below to add the Print to PDF printer manually.
- Press Win + I on your keyboard to open Settings.
- Open the Bluetooth & Devices tab present in the left pane.
- Further, scroll down and click on the Printers & Scanners option.
- There, in the right corner, click the Add Device button. By doing this, Windows will start scanning for connected printer devices automatically.
- In the “The printer that I want isn’t listed” option, click on Add manually.
- Select Add a local printer or network with the manual settings option in the Add Printer dialog. Click Next.
- Select Use an existing port and then click on the drop-down. There, select File: (Print to File). In case, the Print to File option is not present or doesn’t work, try PORTPROMPT (Local Port) or PDF (Local Port). Click Next.
- Under Manufacturer, in the Install the printer driver screen, select Microsoft. And now in the Printers section, choose Microsoft Print to PDF. Click Next.
- Type a new name for your printer or you can just leave it at its default name. Finally, click OK to save changes.
Finally, you can open the Print Interface and check whether the Print to PDF option is available for you to use.
Is Print To PDF Feature Important For My Computer?
Print to PDF feature is not important for your computer and uninstalling the feature won’t cause any issues for your computer.
How To Share PDF After Using Microsoft Print To PDF?
After printing a file to PDF, the file is saved to your selected location on your computer, you can either share it by right-clicking the file to open the context menu and selecting the share option. Or simply attach the file to an email to share it.
Print to PDF is an efficient feature to save our documents as PDF without relying on any sort of third-party application. If the option is not available on your computer, try the troubleshooting methods listed above. We hope you found this article useful, and please share it with others who may benefit from it.
