MAnderson

Hi Shell,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
I'm not sure to what toolbar you are referring here:
If the tools on the left go to menu View and make sure Show Tools is ticked for the I main toolbar on top go to menu View ▸ Show Toolbar. for the context toolbar (the toolbar right above the work area which changes according tot the tool selected go to menu View ▸ Show Context Toolbar EDIT: Callum was faster...

Unsandboxed MSI Installers are now available for Version 2 on Windows as well as sandboxed MSIX ones
 

Pros:
MSI had an installation success rate of ~85% (and we have many requests to our tech support team for v1 install failures). MSIX promises a 99.9% success rate.  MSI requires admin privileges to install. MSIX installs per-user, but files are deduplicated so that disk space isn't wasted. MSI apps are not sandboxed from other applications, meaning other applications can break those apps (we have seen this with several third-party apps in the past). MSIX apps are sandboxed to prevent this. MSI updates require a manual download of the full ~550mb installer which must be manually installed. MSIX can perform in-app delta updates which are smaller and faster. MSI updates can only be performed one at a time. MSIX can update all three apps simultaneously. MSI cannot guarantee that an uninstall will leave your machine in the exact state prior to install. MSIX installs are segregated and don't rely on the registry or special filesystem locations meaning an uninstall always leaves you in a clean state. Installation and app data paths are cleaned on uninstall. MSI apps cannot integrate with Microsoft Photos app to provide "Edit In..." style features. MSIX can. MSI does not require a digital signature. MSIX does (this means any MSIX that appears to be from Serif, will be guaranteed to be from us and only us). Cons:
MSI can allow the user to change the installation directory. MSIX can move installed apps to different drives, but it cannot choose a specific directory (due to the sandbox). See below: MSI can allow an option to install a desktop shortcut. MSIX doesn't provide this as an option, but you can pin the apps to either the Start Menu or the Taskbar. There is also the secret Shell:AppsFolder location in Explorer that allows you to right-click or drag the icon to your Desktop for a shortcut as a workaround if you need it.  MSI has easy discovery of undocumented app locations for launching from a third-party. MSIX hides the install location due to the sandbox, but we use App Execution Alias to enable this scenario. You can find the aliases in the following location: C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityDesigner2.exe
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityPhoto2.exe
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityPublisher2.exe
Remembering to replace username with your Windows username. Also, those paths are already in your %PATH% variable so you can often launch them without even specifying the full path, e.g. just AffinityPhoto2.exe. There are bugs in some third-party applications with the App Execution Alias , and the next post includes aflaunch.exe as a work around if you need that instead. 
 

The current MSIX installers put sandboxed applications on your computer. To access the sandboxed applications we provided execution aliases, as described above. There are bugs in some third-party applications with the App Execution Alias. To bridge the gap between 3rd party apps and the sandboxed installed Affinity Photo 2, we are providing an application AFLaunch.exe that can be called instead of the 0KB execution Alias
So try AffinityPhoto2.exe first, and if that does not work, use AFLaunch.exe.
Attached file aflaunch.zip is a .ZIP file of the current AFLaunch.exe, referred to above. This should downloaded and unzipped onto your computer.
It can then be called (linked to) from withing your Photo DAM, which will start Affinity Photo 2 to edit your Photo. 
aflaunch.zip

Yes, we will be providing MSI installers to customers who require them. This FAQ will be updated with links to MSI downloads when they become available.
Yes. These are now available
 

We will be providing EXE/MSI installers from the first patch onwards.
In the meantime if you need to get your Affinity Photo 2 working with a Photo DAM, then most users can get their Windows DAM to work with Affinity Photo 2 using the instructions in this post

{looks at watch, looks at calendar, looks at watch . . . looks at Serif} 

Just bought the Suite and could not find the installation files so was unable to create shortcuts and worse unable to find a way to run the software! The only way I could launch the software was to double-click on the downloaded installation files which gave me the option to Launch from there. Total irritation and confusion.
However in the meantime after much faffing about through the Forum I discovered to my dismay that these are "App" files and do not install into the Program folder of my C drive and do not appear in my Programs & Features... How do I uninstall them?
I absolutely hate this unexplained change to installing/removing software and am not happy with the way this has been implemented, particularly as no advanced notification (as far as I could tell) was given.
I very much like what Serif is doing with Affinity and love the software but cannot stand this insane change to the standard installation procedure.
Please Serif fix this unwanted installation mess asap. and please retain some independence from the dumbing-down that Micro$oft continually applies to Windows in the so-called attempt to make it better.
I sincerely hope you listen.

Hi all. Thanks for your patience over the weekend when our offices were closed.
We've had a meeting this morning and decided to ALSO offer MSI installers to those people who would like them. I can't tell you when this will happen, as there is engineering work that will be required to allow this to happen, but we hope it won't be long.
Thanks for your feedback!

Nonsense. They want to lock us in their walled garden, and this is the first step. They're looking at Apple with envy and are trying to imitate it. There is ZERO benefits for the end users. Trying to claim otherwise is downright dishonest