Extremely disappointed that this installs as an "App" and not regular software program

[Old Bruce]

5 minutes ago, rvst said:

I see no technical reason why this should lead even to update problems. Hence why I requested a technical explanation from Patrick why he considers it a bad idea, because that's totally not apparent to me. 

Why not wait until there have been a couple of updates and then you can report back here if everything works properly.

[richardcpack]

I am trying to find the location of the new V2 installation.  I want it to be installed on a separate SSD drive other than where the OS is but don't see that option in the new package format.  Where is the default location now and how can I uninstall and install where I want it?

Thanks

[pixelinkmedia]

32 minutes ago, Dangerous said:

If @Patrick Connor is referring to the comment I think he is it involved a completely new install in another directory so come update time the Serif update routine would not update it. Even the poster accepted that future updates could mean having to redo the hack every update which would defeat the object.

Yeah, and this is why "Moving" the app to another drive instead of SSD is a no-no for me.
I have to limit what is installed on my small SSD and I don't want to have to do these work arounds every time there is an update.

We need more info for people who need to move the apps to another drive that also creates a "WindowsApp" locked folder.

[Patrick Connor]

59 minutes ago, rvst said:

Patrick, could you please explain why the "consequences of using that approach are difficult to undo" and what your testing revealed?

Updates would not install.

Application would not clean uninstall/reinstall.

Functionality in the app to keep content in sync had bugs not otherwise present 

[xramonx]

7 hours ago, ℓurié said:

Hello Mark,

I've read the topic. But I still have a "simple" question: why not both?

Is there any chance that the .exe version will be implemented as an option in the near future?

Whether an EXE solution is provided would also interest me. And it is also a fundamental decision whether I continue to use Serif/Affinity. Simply annoying!

[Dangerous]

47 minutes ago, rvst said:

I am the original poster. No, the script does not change the install location - it just adds more permissive permissions without changing the original file ownership or removing the original permissions. 

Yes, a future update would install new versions of files in the same location that have the original more restrictive permissions and therefore the more permissive permissions would need to be applied again. But that's a simple case of running the script again after an update. Personally, I find that a minor imposition compared to continuing to work with a sandboxed app.

I see no technical reason why this should lead even to update problems. Hence why I requested a technical explanation from Patrick why he considers it a bad idea, because that's totally not apparent to me. 

Then it isn't the comment I was referring to. The one I meant was the one that involved unzipping and installing to a different directory. I can't see that comment.

 

[Dangerous]

37 minutes ago, pixelinkmedia said:

Yeah, and this is why "Moving" the app to another drive instead of SSD is a no-no for me.
I have to limit what is installed on my small SSD and I don't want to have to do these work arounds every time there is an update.

We need more info for people who need to move the apps to another drive that also creates a "WindowsApp" locked folder.

The comment I'm referring to allowed you to move to the same drive, different directory and change it from an app to a normal msi type install.

I believe installing the app to another drive isn't a problem with the app but I could be wrong.

 

[Dangerous]

21 minutes ago, xramonx said:

Whether an EXE solution is provided would also interest me. And it is also a fundamental decision whether I continue to use Serif/Affinity. Simply annoying!

Why would the lack of access to the exe be such a big deal?

[julienpierre]

13 minutes ago, Dangerous said:

Why would the lack of access to the exe be such a big deal?

Because some users have heavily customised os that just got rid of all that app crap. And the last thing i want is having a headache while installing an update. Oh well... hope for a proper .exe on v3...

[rvst]

2 minutes ago, julienpierre said:

Because some users have heavily customised os that just got rid of all that app crap. And the last thing i want is having a headache while installing an update. Oh well... hope for a proper .exe on v3...

Microsoft and it's "app crap" where it's trying to turn a desktop OS into a tablet OS even if we're still working on a desktop is about as misguided as Meta's metaverse thing. 

[rvst]

15 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Updates would not install.

Application would not clean uninstall/reinstall.

Functionality in the app to keep content in sync had bugs not otherwise present 

Thanks for the feedback

I repeatedly uninstalled and reinstalled with no problem. It uninstalls cleanly every time. I just did it again with no problem. 

Obviously I can't test updates yet. I'd be happy to test one, but none are available for download. 

My content was synced with no issue. We'll have to see whether it keeps the content up to date.

I'll be keeping my installation this way until a fix is released. My 30 years of system programming experience tells me that these extra permissive permissions are unlikely to cause problems, since I took care not to change any file locations, ownership or even overwrite existing permissions, simply adding some new ones 

Here's hoping for a non-MSIX installation at some time in the future. Nobody uses this App model that Microsoft is trying to force onto users and I predict it's going to cause endless headaches if kept this way, especially for an app that needs to interact with other apps that are not sandboxed in the same environment. 

[Patrick Connor]

7 minutes ago, rvst said:

I'll be keeping my installation this way until a fix is released.

There's not going to be a "fix" this is how MSIX work

7 minutes ago, rvst said:

Here's hoping for a non-MSIX installation at some time in the future

This is more likely than any changes to MSIX as those are out of our control, but there are no plans for this either 

[xramonx]

16 minutes ago, julienpierre said:

Because some users have heavily customised os that just got rid of all that app crap. And the last thing i want is having a headache while installing an update. Oh well... hope for a proper .exe on v3...

 

34 minutes ago, Dangerous said:

Why would the lack of access to the exe be such a big deal?

Quite simply, I want control over my installed programs and also the location and permissions of the files. 

[pixelinkmedia]

14 minutes ago, xramonx said:

 

Quite simply, I want control over my installed programs and also the location and permissions of the files. 

Precisely. I have to have installation control to manage SSD space.

I guess Affinity don't care about losing customers.

That tells me everything I need to know.

Another company going the way of Adobe. Its sad.

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, pixelinkmedia said:

Precisely. I have to have installation control to manage SSD space.

You can control the drive that it installs to. Just not the directory on that drive.

[pixelinkmedia]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

You can control the drive that it installs to. Just not the directory on that drive.

Yeah, not good enough though

Still a lot of questions concerning updates and such like.

I emailed Affinity directly, they still haven't responded yet.

[richardcpack]

I decided to request a refund and use the V1 software

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You can control the drive that it installs to. Just not the directory on that drive.

How do I control what drive it goes to?  that would help!

[Dangerous]

9 minutes ago, pixelinkmedia said:

Precisely. I have to have installation control to manage SSD space.

 

As has been said you can install the app on any drive therefore manage your SSD space so that is not an issue.

 

[pixelinkmedia]

1 minute ago, Dangerous said:

As has been said you can install the app on any drive therefore manage your SSD space so that is not an issue.

 

As I stated above...
Yeah, not good enough though

Still a lot of questions concerning updates and such like.

I emailed Affinity directly, they still haven't responded yet.

[rvst]

31 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

There's not going to be a "fix" this is how MSIX work

This is more likely than any changes to MSIX as those are out of our control, but there are no plans for this either 

Apologies, I expressed myself unclearly. Yes, this is how MSIX works. By "fix" I meant a non-MSIX installation

[Dangerous]

1 minute ago, pixelinkmedia said:

Yeah, not good enough though

Still a lot of questions concerning updates and such like.

I emailed Affinity directly, they still haven't responded yet.

What questions about updates. When there is an update it will be installed no matter what drive you elected it to be installed on. From what I understand updating the app is easier than updating a normally installed program and both the app & the 'program' are exactly the same except with apps you can't mess about with the program files.

[Dangerous]

11 minutes ago, richardcpack said:

I decided to request a refund and use the V1 software

How do I control what drive it goes to?  that would help!

I think I was asked what drive to install on at the start of the install procedure.

[pixelinkmedia]

14 minutes ago, Dangerous said:

What questions about updates. When there is an update it will be installed no matter what drive you elected it to be installed on. From what I understand updating the app is easier than updating a normally installed program and both the app & the 'program' are exactly the same except with apps you can't mess about with the program files.

Sorry, but there is no word from Affinity of this fact yet if you move to another drive.

[pixelinkmedia]

2 minutes ago, Dangerous said:

I think I was asked what drive to install on at the start of the install procedure.

I was not given an option to choose my own install drive or folder. Several people have stated the same thing.
Not sure what you saw.

[Paul Mc]

OK, so I've now just hit this issue. I use Blender for all of my 3D work and Photo has been my image editor for several years. V1 worked great. V2 seems to be a mystery as to how to get it to work. Maybe someone can comment on this. In Blender / Settings you are asked to browse to the EXE file to set up the path. Because of the MS App walled garden this is now not possible using the old method of following the icon properties etc. as Windows is effectively "hiding" the actual location.

So I launch the program and use task manager to locate the program which then appears to work but Blender complains about it being unable to launch the application. I'm guessing that this is a permissions issue more than anything.

Copying this path to the Run Command also fails:

I can see as a stand-alone application that the MS App model will work fine. If you need to integrate it with other applications which use a regular Shell Execute call then you are going to run into this problem.

This is really disappointing and disrupts what was previously a nice workflow. Maybe there is a solution that I'm not aware of.