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Posted

Hello,

I updated my computer to Windows 11, and I can no longer launch any of my Affinity software (Designer, Photo, and Publisher). I've tried installing the latest updates of the software, but still I cannot open them. I just get the "box image" that pops up to show the program is attempting to launch, and then nothing further. The actual program will not launch. How can I fix this?

Posted

See:

Further also check if your GPU driver and Affinity performance preference "OpenCL hardware acceleration setting" (if it's enabled the disable it) will have an impact here.

See therefor also:

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

Posted
4 hours ago, v_kyr said:

See:

Further also check if your GPU driver and Affinity performance preference "OpenCL hardware acceleration setting" (if it's enabled the disable it) will have an impact here.

See therefor also:

 

I tried the disabler, changed the green checks to red Xs, but the programs are still unable to launch.

I then tried to follow the instructions in the first item you linked, but wasn't able to do it. I found the appropriate KB update, but my Windows will not allow me to uninstall it. Right clicking on it does nothing.

Still unable to launch any of my Affinity programs.

Posted
2 hours ago, RebeccasPianoKeys said:

I then tried to follow the instructions in the first item you linked, but wasn't able to do it. I found the appropriate KB update, but my Windows will not allow me to uninstall it. Right clicking on it does nothing.

Still unable to launch any of my Affinity programs.

If hardware acceleration is disabled for all apps, then you have to try to find out, if it's due to the Win update or if it may be a .Net runtime related problem.

Do the Affinity apps generate any crash reports under your Win system?

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

Posted
4 hours ago, v_kyr said:

If hardware acceleration is disabled for all apps, then you have to try to find out, if it's due to the Win update or if it may be a .Net runtime related problem.

Do the Affinity apps generate any crash reports under your Win system?

 

No crash reports. But I'd say the failure to launch prevents the program from even getting to the point where it can crash. It never even runs. Never even opens a window. All I get is the icon on the Windows menu bar, and the display image that shows up when the program is attempting to launch. To close it I have to right click on the app icon on the menu bar and select "close." At that point, a dialogue box comes up that says the program is not responding, and gives me the option to shut it down or wait for it to respond. (And there's no point waiting for it to respond when I've already been waiting upwards of 20 minutes)

Posted

I've been running Affinity Photo with Windows 11 for some months with no problems (apart from the recent font awkwardness) so that may not be where the problem is. But I tend to run with hardware acceleration off. (It doesn't like my GPU).  Suspect for you its hardware acceleration problems which are possibly related to graphics drivers. Apart from the disabler tools there are other methods here to turn off hardware acceleration. 

 

Posted
9 hours ago, RichardMH said:

I've been running Affinity Photo with Windows 11 for some months with no problems (apart from the recent font awkwardness) so that may not be where the problem is. But I tend to run with hardware acceleration off. (It doesn't like my GPU).  Suspect for you its hardware acceleration problems which are possibly related to graphics drivers. Apart from the disabler tools there are other methods here to turn off hardware acceleration. 

 

 

I had already tried the disabler tool, and it didn't resolve the issue. I also used the information you linked to manually go into the settings and confirm the correct text had been entered to disable the hardware acceleration. It has been disabled, and the issue has not been resolved. 

Posted
10 hours ago, RebeccasPianoKeys said:

No crash reports. But I'd say the failure to launch prevents the program from even getting to the point where it can crash. It never even runs. Never even opens a window. All I get is the icon on the Windows menu bar, and the display image that shows up when the program is attempting to launch. To close it I have to right click on the app icon on the menu bar and select "close." At that point, a dialogue box comes up that says the program is not responding, and gives me the option to shut it down or wait for it to respond. (And there's no point waiting for it to respond when I've already been waiting upwards of 20 minutes)

Without any crash reports it's always hard to tell the cause of that behavior. So you might look after some of your Windows 11 system log files, aka if Win 11 reports some problems related to the Affinity apps here and which might cause that behavior! - See therefor for example ...

If it might be due to some .Net runtime environment installment problems under Win 11 take a look at ...

Other than those it also could possibly be deeper related to your GPU driver, in case you have some dedicated GPU and drivers (NVidia, AMD ...) installed. Or it has to do with the recent Win 11 Updates which can make trouble here related to font handling (font mapping) and the like. - Sometimes there are also some third party apps and drivers which don't play good together with the Affinity apps, therefor take also a look over the forums FAQ section here.

However, I hope your Win 11 event logs will tell something more concrete and meaningfull here then in order to determine the cause of all evil!

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

Posted

I looked in the Event Viewer and it said the problem was an Application Hang error, then it sent me to Security and Maintenance to get more information. Below is a screenshot of the more detailed information (I don't understand it, but maybe it means something to you?):

image.thumb.jpeg.e2f1c84dbc2a15a670bf5430fcf9b444.jpeg

 

While I was in the System and Maintenance records, I also noticed a .NET Framework error. 

image.thumb.jpeg.eba8ee7bc64045327bb3f35f6daf9982.jpeg

So I ran the repair tool you linked. Still unable to open Affinity programs. Then I installed the new .NET Cumulative Update (it was the update mentioned in a link you shared above about the font issues, but this time was called KB5017271) and I restarted my computer. Still unable to open Affinity programs. 

 

I also noticed that on the days when I had errors with Affinity Programs failing to open, there were also reports for "Host Process for Windows Tasks" not working. I don't know if that means anything? Screenshot below:

image.thumb.jpeg.f82373e24fd39d8493c9da7e29706435.jpeg

 

Does anything here offer any further hints as to what the problem might be that's preventing my Affinity programs from opening?

 

 

Posted

Do you use any third party virus scanner tool, beside Windows 11 Defender? - If yes, then disable that temporary before starting any Affinity app, in order to see if that may cause problems.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

Posted

Seems to work here on my end and has for months. Even works great on the very, very latest update to 22H2. Only real crashes come when my canvas is way too big or I try exporting TGAs that are too large. Probably a memory handling issue, as the dimensions are crazy. That's really it.

My only suggestions to you - if the above don't work - either try running it as administrator - which almost seems too obvious - or uninstalling, using something like CCleaner or Wise Registry Cleaner to remove glut and clean out conflicts, and then reinstall. Short of reinstalling your entire OS, that's probably the best option imo.

Also, if you've got admin privileges and suspect that the OS is to blame, you may want to investigate using the SFC command line tool in Windows just in case there's a system file that's corrupt that could be mucking around with normal operations.

Posted

Tried running as administrator, still wouldn't open.

Ran SFC scan, no issues reported.

Deleted all Affinity apps, ran basic cleanup with free version of CCleaner. Re-downloaded Affinity Designer and re-installed. Still unable to launch program beyond the splash screen.

Posted

Not sure if there would be any requirements to prevent this, but... Have you tried running them in Win11 safe mode yet? It's the most old school method of weeding out the problem, but it can surely tell you a bunch. If it runs fine there then the problem would almost certainly be due to a driver, service, or startup program causing the issue. Certain services and startup apps won't load or work in safe mode so that would eliminate a number of potential culprits. At that point, it'd just be a (tedious) process of elimination to see who's the jerk keeping Affinity from opening.

Like I said, I honestly can't see why it wouldn't be working. Works here on my end with Win11 (22H2) just fine. Hope things work out for you.

Posted

You can try this if you are running out of ideas....

There should also be one that does something regarding "font caching" I think.

But I can't find that one

 

 

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

Posted

In cases of font_map.dat file related problems ...

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

Posted

I reset my PC through the recovery options (chose "keeps files" and "local reinstall") to wipe my OS and have a fresh start, then reinstalled Affinity apps. At first they worked, but only when launched directly from the shortcuts. Did not work when launching from a saved project file. Then I reinstalled many fonts (from Google Fonts) that I had lost in the resetting process, and then all the Affinity apps stopped working completely. 

I reset my PC once again to wipe the OS once again. Reinstalled Affinity apps once again. This time they would not work at all. They open the splash screen, prompt me to validate by entering my product keys, then prompt me to accept the EULA, then nothing. Just the frozen splash screen.

I then tried running them in Safe Mode. None of the Affinity apps are able to run in Safe Mode.

I'm unable to run the "No Hardware Flag" as per the steps outlined in the link above. Perhaps because the CMD window won't let me input the correct path, it has my user account there by default after C:\, which prevents me from typing any path that begins directly on the C:\ drive, and it will not allow me to backspace to remove the user account details from the path. Is there a way to change this so I can enter the correct path?

Also, I can't see that there are any instructions to follow in the link RE: font_map.dat files? Not sure what I'm supposed to try with that?

Posted

Also... when I installed the initial update that upgraded me from Windows 10 to Windows 11, which is when all the problems with Affinity apps started... that update had me in the 22H2 version. Before I resorted to restarting my PC, I tried the "go back" option in recovery. Thought it would send me back to Windows 10 and potentially fix the problems. Instead, it kept me in Windows 11, but this time the 21H2 version. Did not solve the problem with Affinity apps. Which is why I then tried the restart PC option. Now my computer is still running Windows 11 version 21H2.

Posted

Yikes! That really is a frustrating situation. Sorry about that.

Well, seeing as how you're still licensed to use Win10, go to Microsoft and download the media creation tool to create a new Win10 installation USB/disc.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you're 100% sure that the problem is Win11 then this should be your fix. Just don't upgrade to Win11 when presented with that option during your routine updates.

The latest version of Win10 is also labeled 22H2, but ... y'know... different. (Gotta love how MS goes out of its way to not confuse people. ;) )

OT: Odd that recovery didn't roll you back to Win10. Something probably deleted the GBs worth of recovery data necessary to roll back, making Win11 "permanent" and you only being able to roll back to the last Win11 version instead of Win10. Neither here, nor there, but that's probably what happened. Had that happen to me too when I went from Win8 to 10. Wanted to pull my hair out too. I feel ya'.

Posted
On 10/21/2022 at 3:11 PM, cookepuss said:

Yikes! That really is a frustrating situation. Sorry about that.

Well, seeing as how you're still licensed to use Win10, go to Microsoft and download the media creation tool to create a new Win10 installation USB/disc.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you're 100% sure that the problem is Win11 then this should be your fix. Just don't upgrade to Win11 when presented with that option during your routine updates.

The latest version of Win10 is also labeled 22H2, but ... y'know... different. (Gotta love how MS goes out of its way to not confuse people. ;) )

OT: Odd that recovery didn't roll you back to Win10. Something probably deleted the GBs worth of recovery data necessary to roll back, making Win11 "permanent" and you only being able to roll back to the last Win11 version instead of Win10. Neither here, nor there, but that's probably what happened. Had that happen to me too when I went from Win8 to 10. Wanted to pull my hair out too. I feel ya'.

I messaged Affinity directly on their Facebook page, and the 2 things they had me try were the same things that were already suggested here (disabling OpenCL and uninstalling the .NET Framework updates). I gave up and attempted to do a clean install of Windows 10 (downloaded and created media file on a USB), but the install prompts said it couldn't find drives for the installation? Any idea how to fix this? (I know it's not an Affinity question exactly, but you all seem to know your stuff about computers)

 

Posted

There could be any number of reasons why this would be the case. There are, in my mind, two or three obvious causes for this.

1. If you're saying that it can't find the installation media then this is as simple as going to the BIOS and temporarily setting your boot order so that it looks to the USB first and then, after the first part of the installation, go back to BIOS and set it back to the original state so that it can finish installing it to the HDD. If you don't revert it to the original boot order at some point it'll leave you in a boot loop where it keeps hitting the USB, goes to initial OS installation, and then rebooting to do it all over. You'd have to revert the order for it to finish installation and not hit the USB in first boot position.

However, I don't think that's what you're talking about so...

2. It could be a simple partitioning issue. When Windows installs onto any given HDD, it reserves some space for internal operations or data. To do that, it creates a few partitions. When you want to reinstall to that drive fresh, it sometimes complains that it can't install to that location because of that. The easiest solution here is to just delete all of the partitions on that OS drive. Windows will then recognize that install drive/location and recreate the partitions itself during the fresh install. For you to do this, when you start off, you would have to do a Custom Install and select the relevant partitions to delete. Windows Installer should take over from there.

3. If you have multiple physical HDDs in your system then Windows might give you a hard time because it doesn't understand which is the primary. Sometimes, the only way to handle this is to remove the non-OS drives and then do your install, which may still require you to do that partition thing after. Once the OS is installed and you're at the Windows desktop, you can safely shut down, reinstall the other HDDs, and then start things back up. Not a hard to do operation. Just tedious and maybe a little intimidating if you're not used to digging into the hardware stuff. (I have a tool-less case with dedicated bays and the drives pull out without me opening the core case, but most cases aren't that simple and require at least a screwdriver.)

Anyway, I know for a fact that all three of these tactics work - alone or in some mix of the three. Have had this issue many times over the years. However, for MY own protection, I am forced to issue the following disclaimer:

"WARNING: The above post is intended to illustrate one user's problems and solutions. This example and its proposed solution are provided with no guarantee of success to anybody other than the person providing it. Back up all your data and ground yourself from static whenever dealing with internals. Messing with hardware and/or the BIOS can be tricky and should only be attempted by somebody with experience. I am NOT responsible if things go horribly wrong and you lose data, fry your hardware, or you suddenly find yourself back in the Jurassic era and step on a bug. Proceed at your own risk. Try not to undo humanity."

Just wanna keep myself in the clear here. Not that I don't trust you. :)

Posted (edited)

I'd like to chime in since I have the same problem (none of the programs starts up with no error or anything). This is on Windows 10 Pro (21H2). Been having it for a year or longer and pretty much gave up on trying to fix it.

Quote

Have you tried deleting the user data located below?
%appdata%\Affinity\

Also the program data located below.
C:\ProgramData\Affinity\

EDIT: I have tried this, by the way. It makes no difference, unfortunately.

Edited by OrionFive
  • 1 year later...
Posted (edited)

I also just had this same issue on windows 11, I ran it as admin as previously suggested which solved my issue.
My next step would have been trying to install these applications to a non C:/ path.

As running it as admin did fix my issue and seeing as how the default C:/ is /Program Files which requires admin to do most things within this folder, installing it outside of program files and into D:/ path for example may also solve this issue.

Edited by Exius

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