gewb

download 2.1.1 and copy paste the contents of the documents or wait till 2.2 is officially released which will be either next week or the week after that.

Thanks for the replies. I like Old Bruce's solution!

This new installer approach has cost people (me included) a lot of wasted time and aggravation.  I reinstalled version 1 out of frustration. I am very disappointed.I have the whole suit and I will continue to support Affinity products and promote them as usual. However, being silent would convey the idea that this install methodology (and control by Microsoft) are a welcome decision. NO, its not.
Nevertheless, I do appreciate your efforts towards these wonderful applications. I sincerely hope that a solution comes sooner rather than later.
Thank you.
Kind regards.

Programmers who live on the cutting edge aren't the ones getting bled...
Geez. Who cares what MS is suggesting. Regular installers aren't going away anytime soon. Just admit this was a boneheaded decision and reverse course before too much time passes.

@Mark Ingram
Sorry but just tried this and unless I'm doing something wrong it doesn't work with Lightroom 6.14 (last perpetual version - I'm still hanging onto that hoping for an Affinity DAM). 
Like theDakota it launches Photo2 but then just gives a series of failed messages.  The only thing I've found to work is Walt's BAT file. 
Clive

Here's what really scares me about this:   sooner or later, my hard drive or PC fails, and I have to rebuild my system.   That might be a year from now and I won't remember any of this hoo-ha about how V2 installs as a app - so I'll have to figure it out all over again.  What a PITA.   
 

Hello to all !
As we can see on the forum Serif is well aware about the issues we encounter with the msix install method.
Some of the topics are just annoying (e.g. selecting the install path, missing icons, ....) and other things are a kind of showstopper (the possibility to launch Affinity products from other applications like Adobe Bridge, Adobe LightRoom, Nikon NX Studio, .....).
As for now we have a - temporary - solution for this too : the (in)famous batch file and/or the 'aflaunch.exe' tool.
I suggest we hold our horses and gave the moderators a break until Serif comes with a 'real' solution for this in the coming days or so (as stated by P. Connor).
Until then.... weekend's coming.... relax, have a beer (or some beers) and we'll see....
I think Serif tried to bring a state of the art new product but as so often on the Microsoft platform there are so many flavors and tweaks that extensive testing is needed. And honnestly, the msix stuff is not very well known by ourselves neither (so the problems to move an app to another location, creating icons, ....).
Let's hope for a fast solution and maybe a document with best practices how to live with msix apps in the future.
In the meantime, let's stay calm and constructive on all this. As Patrick Connor says : "do not start to find workarounds yourself as this may break updates in the future too.". That we should - of course - avoid too.
Finally, it's very sad this happened as you never get a second change for a first impression.... But it is what it is for now.
Sincerely yours to all,
Hans.

This mean that we will have to redo every shortcut we have on the desk, the taskbar, stream deck, etc every time there is an update!!! 

IMHO the purpose is to make money for Microsoft.  I'm pretty sure they get a cut on everything sold through their "App Store" so they'd like every Windows application to be purchased through that channel.  To that end, they'll try to herd developers into switching to their new setup package, using some combination of carrots and sticks.    They'll tell you it's about security, or convenience, or something else, but in reality there's probably no benefit to anyone but Microsoft.   

The day before yesterday I posted the path to the exe file that I found worked in IrfanView, yesterday I replied to someone and suggested they try it, they replied and said it hadn't worked. I went to reply to explain why it wouldn't work in all cases and what to do, and found my maximum posts HAD BEEN LIMITED TO ONE A DAY.
Yesterday Affinity's suggested paths were updated from what they were, to the same as what I had posted the day before.
So what did I do wrong to have my posts limited, my disappointment has been expressed quite mildly compared to some others, and at least I tried to come up with constructive ideas.
 
I do agree with others that going down the app route is not being ahead of the game, it is a huge step backwards in desirability, the only people being impressed is MS in their quest to tighten up windows and monetise it.
I also agree with the comments that it is Serif's problem, as they made the choice of installation method.
And their hands are not tied, as they could very quickly (in minutes) create a photo2.exe file that does the same as the bat file previously mentioned, and that file could be placed in an affinity folder in the programme files folder which other programmes could then use as if the programme was installed properly as a programme.
It would require thorough testing on average machines to ensure all permissions/ownership requirements were met.
 
However, the best and most logical solution, which may just restore peoples trust and confidence, would be to re-package the application as a proper programme install, and give people the option to use either. That would also enable Serif which option is best for their business.
 
As I will probably be limited to one post again today, this will be my last post.
Mine is now working, however if a proper programme is available to download, I will be one of the first to take up

Does "preferred" mean "required"? Because my preferred install method is one that lets me put applications where I want them and makes them easy to use with other applications as part of my workflow.
 

Or maybe you can go back to using proper installers that put proper .exe files in "Program Files" so this isn't an issue. Why should all these other developers have to accommodate something you broke?
Very disappointed in Serif right now.

Hello Chriss-
Done.
 
 

Once your image is loaded, in the right pane you see your tools, etc. Find the row of small tabs marked Basic, Lens, Details, Tones and Overlays. Click on Lens. Now find the Rotation slider and corresponding digital spin box. Use the spin box UP (clockwise) or DOWN (counter clockwise) in 1/10th degree steps to rotate your image.

Hi, I've made an attempt to run Affinity Designer on Linux via Wine. I managed to run the program myself, but it is not possible to create or edit a document. The problem is probably with Direct3D support in Wine or in my GPU (maybe drivers).
I will describe how to install and run the Designer via Wine. Maybe someone can successfully create or edit a document (eg with a different GPU). The operating system used is Ubuntu 18.04.
What we need?
Windows (yes, I know) - it can be a virtual machine. It will be used to extract the installation of the program because the standard installer does not work under the Wine.
Wine with some patches - we must add MoveFileTransactedA/W stubs to kernel32. The building of Wine is required.
Winetricks.
64-bit mscms.dll library.
Affinity Designer installer and license.
Offline installer of .NET Framework 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.7.2.
Step 1 – build Wine
We must build and install 64-bit and 32-bit Wine with patch. Building of Wine on Ubuntu is very well described on the WineHQ wiki: Building Biarch Wine On Ubuntu. Don't forget to apply the patch from attachment (fix.patch). During the building process I installed additional libraries like libvulkan-dev and libvkd3d.
Step 2 – create MSI installer of Designer
This step must be done on Windows. Open the command line (cmd.exe) and go to the directory where the Affinity Designer installer is located. Run the affinity-designer.exe /extract command (the file name may be different). Complete the required data and create an MSI installer. Transfer the created MSI file to your system with Wine.
Step 3 – install Winetricks
The Winetricks installation is described on the project page: Winetricks. I prefer a manual installation of latest Winetricks instead install outdated version from repo.
Step 4 – create Wine prefix and install .Net framework
Installation of .Net Framework with Winetricks doesn't work for me, that's why I do it manually.
Initialize new Wine prefix:
WINEPREFIX=~/Designer wineboot –init Change the system to Windows XP (for correct installation of .Net Framework 4.0) and remove the mono if installed:
WINEPREFIX=~/Designer winetricks winxp WINEPREFIX=~/Designer winetricks remove_mono Download and install .NET Framework 4.0:
wget 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/5/A/95A9616B-7A37-4AF6-BC36-D6EA96C8DAAE/dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe' WINEPREFIX=~/Designer wine ./dotNetFx40_Full_x86_x64.exe /q Change the system to Windows 7 and switch mscoree to native (this is very important):
WINEPREFIX=~/Designer winetricks win7 WINEPREFIX=~/Designer winecfg Download and install .NET Framework 4.7.2:
wget 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/D/3/DD35CC25-6E9C-484B-A746-C5BE0C923290/NDP47-KB3186497-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe' WINEPREFIX=~/Designer wine ./NDP47-KB3186497-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe /q  
Step 5 - run Affinity Designer
Switch system to Windows 8.1 or 10. Designer will not start in Windows 7 mode due to Aero errors.
WINEPREFIX=~/Designer winetricks win81 Install Affinity Designer (in my case MSI installer is Affinity.msi)
WINEPREFIX=~/Designer wine msiexec /passive /i ./Affinity.msi Copy the missing mscms.dll library to Affinity Designer instalation directory. In my case it is ~/Designer/drive_c/Program Files/Affinity/Affinity Designer/. I have found the missing library on dlldownloader.com: mscms.dll.
Start Affinity Designer:
WINEPREFIX=~/Designer wine "C:\Program Files\Affinity\Affinity Designer\Designer.exe" The program should start and you will see the welcome screen.
I can open preferences and change options, but creating a new document causes a crash. In Performance tab my GPU is displayed as Intel(R) HD Graphivs 4000 (I have Intel® UHD Graphics 620).
Crash report:
Attempting to create Direct3D device with adapter Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 c:\buildagent10\work\live\persona\windows\libraries\serif.directx\dxrenderer.cpp(676): error 0x80004001 (Unknown error 0x80004001) In the last step I tried to start the Designer using Vulkan-based D3D10/D3D11 implementation. After this (and install mesa-vulkan-drivers) in Performance tab my GPU is displayed correctly, but the program still crash while creating a new document.
WINEPREFIX=~/Designer winetricks dxvk Crash report:
Attempting to create Direct3D device with adapter Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 (Kabylake GT2) c:\buildagent10\work\live\persona\windows\libraries\serif.directx\dxrenderer.cpp(676): error 0x80004001 (Unknown error 0x80004001) I know that Serif developers don't provide support for running Affinity programs via Wine. The post is for information purposes only.


fix.patch