Docs / Installation & Setup

Installation & Setup

BarePDF provides release packages for both Windows (Interactive Setup & Portable ZIP) and Linux (Debian / Pardus .deb & Portable AppImage).

Open the BarePDF download page and download the single Windows installer for the latest stable release.

Setup Behavior

  • No Administrator Rights Required: Installs directly to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\BarePDF.
  • File Association: Registers ProgID BarePDF.Document.1 and application capabilities under HKCU.
  • Open With: Registers BarePDF in the Windows “Open with” menu and RegisteredApplications.
  • Default App Prompt: Setup offers an option upon completion: “Launch Windows Default Apps settings to select BarePDF as your default .pdf reader”.

[!NOTE] BarePDF strictly adheres to Windows guidelines. It never forcibly overwrites protected UserChoice registry keys. If you choose to set BarePDF as default, Windows opens the native ms-settings:defaultapps?registeredAppUser=BarePDF page for your confirmation.

Option 2: Portable Windows ZIP Package

Open the BarePDF download page and download the single portable package for the latest stable release.

  1. Extract the ZIP archive anywhere on your disk or portable USB drive (e.g. C:\Tools\BarePDF-Portable).
  2. Double-click BarePDF.exe to run immediately.
  3. The portable build requires no installation, leaves no registry traces, and operates completely self-contained.

Option 3: Debian / Pardus (.deb) (Recommended for Linux)

Open the BarePDF download page and download the .deb package (barepdf_<version>_amd64.deb) for Pardus 23 “Yirmiüç”, Pardus 25 “Bilge”, Debian 12+, or Ubuntu 22.04+.

Installation on Pardus

  1. Via GUI (Pardus Paket Kurucu): Double-click the downloaded .deb file. Pardus Paket Kurucu will prompt to install BarePDF with full desktop and MIME associations.
  2. Via Terminal: 
    sudo apt install ./barepdf_*_amd64.deb

Desktop Integration

  • Installs the binary to /usr/bin/barepdf and bundled PDFium runtime to /usr/lib/barepdf/.
  • Integrates into your application menu under Office / Ofis with native desktop icons.
  • Associates MIME type application/pdf for seamless double-click opening in File Managers (Thunar, Dolphin, Nautilus).

Option 4: Portable Linux AppImage

Open the BarePDF download page and download the universal standalone Linux executable (BarePDF-<version>-x86_64.AppImage).

  1. Open your terminal or file manager and grant execution permissions: 
    chmod +x BarePDF-*-x86_64.AppImage
  2. Run BarePDF directly: 
    ./BarePDF-*-x86_64.AppImage
  3. The AppImage bundles all required runtime libraries including PDFium and runs on any modern 64-bit Linux distribution without system changes.

Verifying Release Checksums

You can compare downloaded release integrity with the published checksum manifest using PowerShell:

$Installer = Get-Item .\BarePDF-Setup-x64-v*.exe
Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 -LiteralPath $Installer.FullName

Compare the calculated hash with the versioned checksum manifest linked on the download page.

Uninstallation

To remove the installed version:

  1. Open Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps.
  2. Locate BarePDF and click Uninstall.
  3. The uninstaller removes %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\BarePDF and clean-up registry keys. Your personal documents are never touched.