CriticalPDF

Changelog

Release history for the CriticalPDF Suite.

CriticalPDF uses date-based suite versions of the form YYYY.MDD.BUILD.0. Each suite release pins compatible CriticalPDF UI and CriticalPDF service versions — see Settings → Help / Support → Versions and updates to see what’s installed on a given machine.

2026.517.37.0 — 2026-05-17

  • New — Auto-update now verifies the downloaded MSI’s SHA-256 against the manifest before applying. A mismatch fails closed and the existing version keeps running. The same hash is also published as a .sha256 sidecar next to every MSI for manual verification.
  • Fix — Race between bundled-runtime unpack and SCM heartbeat causing service 1053 on first boot after a clean MSI install.
  • Fix — Dead-letter envelope HMAC verification failure when a job was sealed during a service shutdown.
  • Improvement — ~40% faster cold-cache startup of the desktop app.

2026.501.30.0 — 2026-05-01

  • New — Per-document-type templates with marker-tag variable substitution (<0>identifier</0>, <1>...</1> … <n>...</n>).
  • New — Multi-provider email — Custom SMTP, Computer Team Inc., Microsoft 365 (OAuth2), Gmail (OAuth2).
  • New — Per-template PDF encryption with granular permissions (AES-128 / AES-256).
  • New — Encrypted dead-letter queue with automatic replay on user login.
  • New — Built-in savings calculator (per-piece, per-page, per-job costs; lifetime + windowed totals).
  • New — Auto-update via the local service with EnableAutoUpdate / UpdateCheckIntervalHours in serviceconfig.json.
  • New — In-app log viewer with severity filtering and substring search.
  • Breaking — Minimum supported Windows version is now 10 (1809). Windows 8.1 is no longer supported.
  • Breaking — Configuration relocated under C:\ProgramData\CriticalPDF\ — per-user GUI config in users\<username>\config.json, machine-wide service config, and shared stats / logs / diagnostics. 1.x’s Multi-User / Single-User config mode is no longer relevant; 1.x configs are imported automatically on first launch.

2026.321.18.0 — 2026-03-21

  • Improvement — Bundled runtime refreshed; faster spooler-poll responsiveness on Server SKUs.
  • Fix — Multiple HiDPI rendering issues in the per-capture review window.

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