For those of you who have MiKTeX install but still can't seem to solve this even with the other answers here, I found a solution (for Windows).
If you have have both MiKTeX and Texmaker installed on Windows, but get the could not start the command error, try this:
- Locate the
pdflatex.exe file. This is a file which should have been installed along with MiKTeX. Go to the folder in with MiKTeX was installed. Use the search feature to find pdflatex.exe. Right click on it and copy the file path, so what you copied should be something like this: C:\path\to\pdflatex.exe. If you don't copy the end pdflatex.exe (because Windows only shows the file path excluding the name in the About box) don't worry, you can append \pdflatex.exe to it later!
- Go to Texmaker and click Options > Configure Texmaker
- In the page that comes up the second label you'll see is called "PdfLaTeX." It the box next to it you need to paste the path in. Select the word
pdflatex which is in that box and paste the file path in. Don't forget to put it in quotes! Now, in that box, you should see something like this: "C:\path\to\pdflatex.exe" -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex
- Click okay and you're good to go! Try building something. You shouldn't see an error now.
Hopefully this helps someone and saves them from a lot of searching!
pdflatex sample2eto getsample2e.pdf. BTW Latest TeXmaker is now 4.0.3 – texenthusiast Aug 02 '13 at 17:56filename.texbefore runningQuickBuild. Make sure Ghostscript is installed incase oflatex-dvips-ps2pdfroute compilation/PSTricks otherwise usepdflatexcompilation. – texenthusiast Aug 02 '13 at 18:02pdflatex sample2eat commandline window to ensure if it's correct – texenthusiast Aug 02 '13 at 18:13Options-->Settings file-->Reset settingsand Remember to save the settings file somewhere for backup incase required. Restart TeXmaker so that TeXmaker automatically configures thelatexdvipsexecutables – texenthusiast Aug 02 '13 at 18:15Desktopand run from that commandline window or any where folder where you have write permission , don't go to MiKTeX bin folder – texenthusiast Aug 02 '13 at 18:31