title: How to use a specific PDF IFilter
body: <p>I'm trying to extract text from PDF files using an iFilter. </p>
  
  <p>The Adobe PDF iFilter that is distributed with Adobe Reader is awful, returning <code>HRESULT E_FAIL</code> messages for many PDF documents. </p>
  
  <p>The <a href="http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/ifilter/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FoxIt PDF IFilter</a> works beautifully on virtually all of the PDFs I've been using for testing.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is that every time the Adobe Updater runs, it replaces the awesome FoxIt IFilter with the crappy Adobe IFilter. </p>
  
  <p>I've been using the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms691002%28VS.85%29.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">LoadIFilter</a> method to get the registered IFilter for PDF files. Is there a way to force the Win32 API to load the FoxIt IFilter instead of the Adobe IFilter? </p>
  
  <p><strong>NOTE:</strong> This question about <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1394356/programmatically-determine-which-ifilters-are-installed">determining which IFilters are installed</a> asks a related -- but not identical -- question.</p>