PDFsam Basic

Version documented: 5.2.4 Installer type: .exe (NSIS) Hives written: HKCU, HKLM

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📁 Registry Paths

Path	Hive	Purpose
SOFTWARE\pdfsam	HKCU	User preferences
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\pdfsam_is1	HKLM	Uninstall entry

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🔑 Keys

HKCU\SOFTWARE\pdfsam

Value Name	Type	Example Data	Description
locale	REG_SZ	en_US	UI language locale
theme	REG_SZ	DARK	UI theme (DARK or LIGHT)
checkForUpdates	REG_DWORD	1	Enable update check on start
premium	REG_DWORD	0	Premium license flag
analytics	REG_DWORD	0	Usage analytics consent
workingDirectory	REG_SZ	C:\Users\User\Documents	Default output directory

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\pdfsam_is1

Value Name	Type	Example Data	Description
DisplayName	REG_SZ	PDFsam Basic 5.2.4	Display name
DisplayVersion	REG_SZ	5.2.4	Version
Publisher	REG_SZ	Andrea Vacondio	Publisher
InstallLocation	REG_SZ	C:\Program Files\pdfsam	Install path
UninstallString	REG_SZ	"...\unins000.exe"	Uninstaller

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📝 Notes

• PDFsam is a Java-based application — it requires a JRE (bundled since v4).
• No HKCR file associations are registered; PDFsam does not claim .pdf as a default handler.
• Analytics can be disabled before first launch by pre-setting analytics = 0 in the registry.

# Disable analytics and update check silently before deployment
$path = "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\pdfsam"
if (-not (Test-Path $path)) { New-Item -Path $path -Force | Out-Null }
Set-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name "analytics" -Value 0 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name "checkForUpdates" -Value 0 -Type DWord

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🗑️ Cleanup

# Remove PDFsam user preferences
Remove-Item -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\pdfsam" -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

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📦 Package Managers

Manager	ID / Command
winget	winget install AndreaVacondio.PDFsamBasic
Chocolatey	choco install pdfsam
Scoop	scoop install extras/pdfsam