PaperPort 11 - Free Upgrade to Version 11.2

I. Introduction

In a previous article (now deprecated), I discussed how to upgrade — at no cost for licensed users — Nuance's PaperPort Version 11 (hereafter, PP11) and PaperPort Version 12 (PP12) to the latest "point" releases, namely, 11.2 and 12.1. At the time of that article's publication, PP11 and PP12 were the two latest versions. Now the latest version is PP14 (yes, Nuance was superstitious and skipped 13), and its latest "point" release is 14.5.

I decided that adding PP14 to the previous article would result in a long, unwieldy article. In addition, a user of one version is not going to be concerned about the other two versions, so I decided to create three separate articles for PP11, PP12, and PP14 users. This is the PP11 one.

The earlier point releases of PP11 — 11.0 and 11.1 — are known to have bugs that were fixed in 11.2. Although the links in the previous article for 11.2 still work, Nuance informed me that they may soon stop working. This new article provides working links for 11.2 that Nuance says will continue to work after the other ones have been taken down. This article also provides other useful information on upgrading.

Article Update on 18-Apr-2020: Last year, Kofax acquired the Document Imaging Division of Nuance, which included PaperPort. I discuss this in an EE article and video:

Free in-place upgrade of Nuance PaperPort Professional 14.5 to Kofax PaperPort Professional 14.7
Free upgrade of Nuance PaperPort Professional 14.5 to Kofax PaperPort Professional 14.7

As a result of the acquisition, some of the links in this article were broken, as they changed from the Nuance domain to the Kofax domain. This article update fixes those links.
End Article Update

Article Update on 30-Mar-2024: This article fixes some broken links and provides a PDF file attachment where the linked-to content no longer exists.
End Article Update

II. Comparison of Standard and Professional Editions

For PP11, there are two consumer editions – Standard and Professional. The feature comparison matrix is available in the PDF file attached to this article (provided here under "Fair Use", as it was available via a link on the public Internet).

III. New Links to Downloads

The new links are to a direct download of the upgrades for PP11.2 Standard and Professional, rather than to a Download Request Form, as with the previous links. Beware the size — both are very large:

PP11.2 Standard (251,494,031 bytes)
https://supportcontent.kofax.com/paperport/11/PP11STD_v8263.zip

PP11.2 Professional (321,030,751 bytes)
https://supportcontent.kofax.com/paperport/11/PP11PRO_v8263.zip

IV. Save Scanning Profiles

Before uninstalling your current PP11, save your scanning profiles. Unfortunately, a fresh install of PP11 overwrites your customized scanning profiles file with a standard file. You will lose all of the work that you put into creating your custom scanning profiles.

In XP, the PP11 scanning profiles are located here:
c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ScanSoft\PaperPort\11\Profiles.xml

In Vista, the PP11 scanning profiles are located here:
c:\Users\All Users\Nuance\PaperPort\11\Profiles.xml

In W7 and W8, they are likely at the same location as Vista, but PP11 is not supported on W7 or W8, and I have never installed it in either, so I'm not sure. Vista is the latest Windows on which PP11 is supported.

Copy the "Profiles.xml" file to a different folder before uninstalling your old PP11 and then copy it back after installing PP11.2.

V. Uninstallation Procedure

IMPORTANT: Make sure you are connected to the Internet during this entire process so the Nuance Activation Server can do its thing, thereby retaining your activation.

For proper installation, you should uninstall all PP11-related products first. This includes PDF Create, PP Image Printer, and, of course, PP11 itself (these products require separate uninstalls). You should use the standard Windows manual procedure to uninstall these programs, that is, via Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs in XP and Control Panel>Programs and Features in Vista, W7, W8. If you have PDF Converter, that should also be uninstalled before installing the upgrade (and it requires a separate uninstall).

For further information, here is the Nuance PaperPort knowledge base article regarding uninstallation:
Manual uninstall instructions for PaperPort 11

VI. Remover Tool

Nuance recommends the standard Windows uninstallation procedure, as described in the section above. However, if your uninstallation is problematic, Nuance provides a free Remover Tool that does a more thorough job of removing all traces of a PP11 installation. Here is the link:
PP11 Remover tool

VII. Installation Procedure

IMPORTANT: As with uninstallation, make sure you are connected to the Internet during the installation process so the Nuance Activation Server can do its thing.

After proper manual uninstallation, the next step is to install the upgrade. Each PP11.2 link is to a ZIP file which must be manually unzipped. After unzipping, run the file "AUTORUN.exe" in the root.

The PP11.2 installer will install PP11.2, PDF Create, and PP Image Printer. You will need to reinstall PDF Converter separately (if you have it and you uninstalled it).

VIII. Flexera's FlexNet Connect Common Software Manager

Nuance uses a Flexera product called FlexNet Connect Common Software Manager to manage updates/upgrades. Many, if not all, Nuance software installations also install this product. I do not like it, as I find it to be an invasive product that does not work well and has some undesirable side-effects.

If you like FlexNet Connect, skip to the next section in this article. If you don't like it, but haven't been able to figure out how to uninstall it, keep reading. It intentionally does not create an uninstaller, so you can't uninstall it from Programs and Features. To uninstall it, you need to download their uninstaller, which is here:

Edit on 30-Mar-2024: The link to the uninstaller no longer exists. My suggestion at this time is to do a web search for "uninstall flexera flexnet".

IX. Important Warning

Nuance considers PP11 to be an End-of-Life (EOL) product. As such, Nuance provides no guarantee on how long the download links provided in this article will be active. My advice is to download now, before it's too late.

That's it – happy upgrading to PaperPort 11.2!

If you find this article to be helpful, please click the thumbs-up icon below. This lets me know what is valuable for EE members and provides direction for future articles. Thanks very much! Regards, Joe

Comparison Matrix of PP11 Standard and PP11 Professional.pdf