Machinery’s Handbook 27th Edition CD-ROM Troubleshooting

Please note that Industrial Press no longer supports this old software program as it will not run on newer machines and operating systems. The archival instructions below, collected to assist with troubleshooting usage and reinstallation issues, are provided solely as a courtesy to our loyal customers.

Good news is that there is an upgrade option: As a previous edition Handbook CD-ROM owner, you are eligible to upgrade to the Machinery’s Handbook 32 Digital Edition Upgrade. (The discounted Upgrade version of this digital product is identical to the regular Digital Edition, except that you must enter your previous edition MH CD-ROM registration number or have a current subscription to a previous edition MH digital product at our eBookStore site.) You can see the full Machinery’s Handbook Product Family and combination packages by clicking here.


Authorization: The MH27 program must be authorized by means of the installation program. If this step is not completed successfully, the Handbook CD will not run. Detailed instructions for installing and authorizing are included in the file Instructions.pdf located on the Machinery’s Handbook 27 CD.

Make sure that you have Adobe Reader and/or Acrobat installed before attempting to use this program. The following describes what you need to do AFTER you have run the setup program and authorized your CD-ROM.

1. It is likely that any problem with the 27th edition is related to the FileOpen plugin. If you have the version 2.7.0.1 (or possibly higher) FileOpen plugin installed, you should not have any trouble with version of Reader 9 and lower. The plugin is also required in Reader X and XI, along with the changes to Preferences that are mentioned below.

 Here is a simple way to check the version of the plugin: Open Adobe Reader or Acrobat. If you are using both, you should check this in each version. In Reader/Acrobat go to Help -> About Third party Plug-ins and click on FileOpen. You should get a dialog box that has the version number of the

2. In Reader 8 or 9, there is nothing else to do. In Reader/Acrobat versions X, XI, or DC complete the following steps:

 If you are using Adobe Reader or Acrobat version X (10), XI (11), or DC (2015) there is also a setting in Preferences that needs to be changed. This is simple to do and will get your Handbook working. This is explained below. However, there is also another potential problem with the MH27 with these two versions of Reader/Acrobat, and that is that you may not be able to print. For some reason, some uses with these Reader/Acrobat version can print, and some cannot. You might as well make the changes to Preferences and see which group you fall into.

  • In Adobe Reader X, go to Edit->Preferences -> General category, and look for the check box “Enable Protected Mode at Startup” and UNCHECK it. Reader X has changes since it was first released, so if you don’t find this setting in the General category look for it in the Security (Enhanced) category. Then exit preferences and exit Reader. Restart Reader and test the Handbook. It should now work. Check if the Print function is available.
  •  In Reader XI or DC, the process is the same, except you need to go to Edit->Preferences->Security (Enhanced) category and UNCHECK the “Enable Protected Mode at Startup” box. Then exit Preferences and Reader and test the Handbook.
  • In Acrobat 11, the setting is on the Edit->Preferences->Security (Enhanced) page, but you have to set the Protected View radio button to Off, then close Acrobat and reopen, and test.
  • Acrobat 10 did not originally have this setting, but may now. It will probably be on the Edit->Preferences->General category page.

3. Once you get the 27th Handbook working, you will want to verify that you can print if you need to use that functionality.

 With Adobe Reader X, XI, and DC, some users have been unable to print; others do not experience this problem. There is another FileOPen plugin available at http://plugin.fileopen.com. (This plugin is also used by the 28th to 30th edition Handbooks.) It may work. CLOSE Reader/Acrobat and click on the link above, then click OK on the page to install the plugin. Then reopen your 27th Handbook and test whether you can print.

ISSUES PREVIOUSLY REQUIRING ASSISTANCE FROM THE INDUSTRIAL PRESS HANDBOOK TECH TEAM: We no longer support this 20-year-old CD-ROM software version, including resetting order IDs and providing codes for offline authorization. Please see above regarding options for upgrading to the latest Digital Edition.