File path for Affinity Photo / Start EXE-File

[MartinLueke]

Hello, I just installed Affinity Photo 2 and I'm wondering where to find the file path for the EXE file? I also work with ACDsee and would like to create a link to Affinity Photo 2. How does this work? (Windows 10)

[lphilpot]

It's an MS Store app, so it's installed under C:\Program Files\WindowsApps. I think (?) the path may be unique per installation. On mine, it's C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App. I'm not sure if the random part is unique, though.

But you can find it:

1. Launch Photo
2. Launch Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
3. Go to the Details tab
4. Find Photo.exe and right-click on that line
5. Select Open File Location

An Explorer window will open where you can find Photo.exe.

I had to do this to integrate it with XnView MP (and I also need to do it for Fast Stone).

[Grumpy Hec]

Thanks Len. I was aware of that method to discover the full path but unfortunately that does no address the permissions problem. That is a swine as I am not sufficiently knowledgeable about current Windows versions to feel at ease altering security settings to enable third party programmes to read & execute. Sadly it is not like Unix which was a joy in that area.

 

The idea of creating a .bat file has some merit although I thought I'd left those behind years ago!. I also suspect that some third party applications will expect to be pointed at a .exe so will not accept a .bat anyway. 

 

It also, of course, still leaves the basic lack of a DAM although I fully accept that there are options out there. It is just that they involve going backward in terms of integration compared to how LRc & PS work together. Some people will be fine with that which is excellent but it is a deal breaker for me even though my first impressions on trying AP V2 are very favourable.

 

Hector

[Guenterm]

Hello i tried the solution by Len with DXO Photlab 5, and the Item was there as an export item. but after trying to export, I got "Affinity Photo could not be opened"

Maybe a security problem??

[Balveda]

This is an absolute nightmare for me. I thought Affinity 2.0 was a shoe in and bought the software thinking that it would be accessible via Program Files as per normal. Obviously not, My workflow is like this....Fast Raw Viewer > Affinity Photo with third party software used as plugins. The key to this is being able to tell Fast Raw Viewer the path to the exec file. Even as admin it's not allowing me to change the permissions and allow access to Fast Raw using the path revealed in Task Manager. Like others I'm considering ditching it for a refund. The improvements to the software are pretty arbitrary considering I had macros for luminosity masks and also used blend ranges to target areas using luminosity on an ad hoc basis as I want along. I didn't like changing the tool icons either, why reduce familiarity for existing users? I was happy to keep the software despite being a bit disappointed with the improvements as I expected more tbh. However this change to my long established and efficient workflow adversely affects me at a very fundamental level; I didn't expect a problem as stupid as this.

UPDATE: Okay, I saw the posts on here and just put AffinityPhoto2.exe into the relevant box for the location of the program....Sorry...App A dialogue box comes up asking if you want to ignore an issue that occurs and it goes on to open the file In Affinity Photo 2.0.....After a ten second delay.

[thedakota]

This is a deal-breaker for me. Hopefully they'll fix it in 2.01. Still can't believe they launched without a solution to this issue. 

[Balveda]

 

20 minutes ago, thedakota said:

This is a deal-breaker for me. Hopefully they'll fix it in 2.01. Still can't believe they launched without a solution to this issue. 

See my update, ten seconds though! I don't think many pros would like that added on to their workflow on every single image! A major flaw and as you say a deal-breaker, even with the fix.

[thedakota]

2 hours ago, Balveda said:

 

See my update, ten seconds though! I don't think many pros would like that added on to their workflow on every single image! A major flaw and as you say a deal-breaker, even with the fix.

Ah, thanks for the suggestion but I get the same result as @Grumpy Hec - a permissions issue prevents ACDSee from opening Affinity.

[Balveda]

3 minutes ago, thedakota said:

Ah, thanks for the suggestion but I get the same result as @Grumpy Hec - a permissions issue prevents ACDSee from opening Affinity.

Yeah I get the error message everytime I open Fast Raw, sometimes it takes way more than 10 secs, still teetering on the brink of that refund, the only thing stopping me is the fact that the old Affinity Program will stop getting updates etc at some point and I do like using Affinity. All these problems just make me feel more than a bit sad that this great software has been marred by something as downright silly as this.

[Balveda]

Nailed it. Watch this video, ignore the quick fix download first part (broken link) The manual method though...It works. Do it on every folder on the string, all I did was  copy the app folder and paste it into the Affinity folder in Program Files. Pointed Fast Raw Viewer to the exe file for Affinity Photo 2 and hey presto, I can now load from Fast Raw Viewer into Affinity 2.0, just had to put in my Affinity user id and password. Here's the video that unlocked the whole process for me.

(Video removed by moderator)

[thedakota]

I'd come across this method but decided against it because of teh security issues which @myclay highlights. I've found another way that doesn't involve changing folder ownership. 

1. Create your .bat file as highlighted above and save it in a folder 

2. Navigate to that folder in ACDSee to add it as an external editor 

3. When you reach the folder, ignore "exe files only" and type the full name of your batch file - mine is called openaffinity.bat

4. Click OK

This works with DxO Photolab too. For me, anyway. Curious to find out if it works for others. 

[myclay]

Deleted this posting to not confuse anyone.

Edited November 13, 2022 by myclay
deleted as wished due to unsuported by devs!

[Mark Ingram]

I've mentioned elsewhere that 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

Please replace username with your Windows username. Also, those paths are already in your %PATH% variable so you can launch them without even specifying the full path, e.g. AffinityPhoto2.exe.

 

[thedakota]

7 minutes ago, Mark Ingram said:

I've mentioned elsewhere that 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

Those paths are already in your %PATH% variable so you can launch them without even specifying the full path, e.g. AffinityPhoto2.exe.

 

Which doesn't work for many users, including me. I get the error message "the file cannot be accessed by the system". 

That's why folks all over the internet (Ive seen threads on Facebook, Reddit, Digital Photography Forums and elsewhere) are looking for solutions that work. Is this an acknowledged bug that your Devs are trying to resolve? 

 

[Balveda]

5 minutes ago, thedakota said:

Which doesn't work for many users, including me. I get the error message "the file cannot be accessed by the system". 

That's why folks all over the internet (Ive seen threads on Facebook, Reddit, Digital Photography Forums and elsewhere) are looking for solutions that work. Is this an acknowledged bug that your Devs are trying to resolve? 

 

Just tried this @thedakota it worked for me, C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityPhoto2.exe as you see removing the < and > around username is key to this. Thanks very much for posting this as it's a far neater solution than messing about with security settings. Cheers.

[Mark Ingram]

3 minutes ago, Balveda said:

Just tried this @thedakota it worked for me, C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityPhoto2.exe as you see removing the < and > around username is key to this. Thanks very much for posting this as it's a far neater solution than messing about with security settings. Cheers.

Thanks for that feedback @Balveda. I hadn't considered that the < and > could cause confusion, so I'll edit my original posts to remove them and clarify that username should match your Windows username. 

[thedakota]

2 minutes ago, Mark Ingram said:

Thanks for that feedback @Balveda. I hadn't considered that the < and > could cause confusion, so I'll edit my original posts to remove them and clarify that username should match your Windows username. 

That exactly matches what I was already doing. I get an error message that prevents either DxO or ACDSee opening Affinity. 

[Balveda]

2 minutes ago, Mark Ingram said:

Thanks for that feedback @Balveda. I hadn't considered that the < and > could cause confusion, so I'll edit my original posts to remove them and clarify that username should match your Windows username. 

Didn't realise the fix came from yourself originally @Mark Ingram many thanks.

[thedakota]

2 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Please try it with these using %username% instead of typing your own in manually

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

(Mark's version above was meant for you to substitute your name in the <username> bit

 

Same error message. 

I'm also following this thread with interest. Looks like Serif has a lot of unhappy customers. 

[Mark Ingram]

8 minutes ago, thedakota said:

That exactly matches what I was already doing. I get an error message that prevents either DxO or ACDSee opening Affinity. 

I appreciate that this answer won't help you right now, but the bug is within DxO and ACDSee. If you try something like the following on the command line:

C:\Users\my_username>AffinityPhoto2.exe Downloads\IMG_9849.jpg

Or,

C:\Users\my_username>C:\Users\my_username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityPhoto2.exe Downloads\IMG_9849.jpg

Then Photo will correctly load the specified image. 

[DRM]

This is a super pain. I have managed to make a shortcut to the Photo 2 application on Windows 11 which works, despite the file seeming to have "0" bytes, so presumably even that isn't the real file. However, if I try to browse to the Photo 2 executable (or I guess its alias) as an external editor using Adobe PSE it tells me "The file can't be accessed by the system". I have no idea why. (Evidently I never tried to add "<>" to the username!!!) The file type of ".exe" is the only one allowed.

As I have 25'000 files in the PSE database this makes the new editor essentially unusable for me. I would dearly like to export the PSE database to a photo database made by Affinity, but they don't have one. Thus, it would seem that I have bought a totally unuseable product, as have many other people. Don't the developers test these sorts of things before releasing a new product?

I am hopping mad. This is just the way to lose customers!

 

[thedakota]

@Mark IngramI hear what you're saying. This is someone else's problem. But it isn't. Your suggested solutions don't work. If I abandon Serif and move to another application such as Photoshop, it's very much your firm's problem. 

I'm signing off now. Thank you to everyone in this thread including @Mark Ingramand other Serif staff. I appreciate you have to follow the party line, and your patience is very much appreciated. 

[DarkClown]

@Mark: just as a little downside: These "App Execution Alias" don't come with a proper icon

[DRM]

The reply by Mark Ingram totally misses the point. Photo-2 may well load an image as he specifies, and in fact as I mention above, I can make a shortcut to this this (pseudo)file which will run the program. However, there seems that the workflows of a large number of people have been broken because the executable has been stored in some new way which most existing applications don't know about. Thus, suggesting that we all have to wait until all these many third-party applications are modified (and expecting us to buy the new versions) is a non-starter.

Affinity seems to have used some new mechanism for storing applications which has broken the workflow of very many customers, and they need to come up with a fix or workaround. Why not simply use the same installation mechanism as with the previous version? That worked fine!

[Balveda]

2 minutes ago, DRM said:

The reply by Mark Ingram totally misses the point. Photo-2 may well load an image as he specifies, and in fact as I mention above, I can make a shortcut to this this (pseudo)file which will run the program. However, there seems that the workflows of a large number of people have been broken because the executable has been stored in some new way which most existing applications don't know about. Thus, suggesting that we all have to wait until all these many third-party applications are modified (and expecting us to buy the new versions) is a non-starter.

Affinity seems to have used some new mechanism for storing applications which has broken the workflow of very many customers, and they need to come up with a fix or workaround. Why not simply use the same installation mechanism as with the previous version? That worked fine!

Oh don't get me wrong @DRM I'm still really ****ed off. If when I get the chance to actually use the program I'll still be considering the refund as there are very few improvements which rock my boat as I already had in place workarounds for lack of Fill Opacity, Luminosity Masking etc. There isn't much for me to get excited about. I wouldn't say something big has happened at all.