Question about Affinity Designer 2 & Photo 2 install

[GARoss]

I'm on Windows 11. I just installed Affinity Designer 2 & Affinity Photo 2 but still have both Affinity Designer 1 & Affinity Photo 1 installed on my PC.

Windows Apps shows Affinity Designer 2 at 116Mb & Affinity Photo 2 at 173Mb. 

But Windows Apps shows Affinity Designer 1 at 1.03Gb & Affinity Photo 1 at 1.06Gb.

Are Affinity Designer 2 & Affinity Photo 2 proxies & internet dependent? I didn't need to use a product key when installing. I'd prefer a standalone install without needing to connect to the internet to use my software. 

Did I do something wrong while installing? If so, how to correct?

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, GARoss said:

Are Affinity Designer 2 & Affinity Photo 2 proxies & internet dependent?

No.

1 hour ago, GARoss said:

Did I do something wrong while installing?

No, as far as I know.

I'm not really sure what Windows is "counting" when it provides those numbers.

[GARoss]

5 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

No.

No, as far as I know.

I'm not really sure what Windows is "counting" when it provides those numbers.

I was reading your other response to a similar question when this came in.

So, it's an "app" now? Don't know if that's good or bad but can't think of what might be good. The bad would seem to be an app wouldn't utilize all my PCs processing power.

I did think it was strange that a product key wasn't required.

[walt.farrell]

27 minutes ago, GARoss said:

The bad would seem to be an app wouldn't utilize all my PCs processing power.

An App can use all the same functions that any other program can, as far as I know.

There are annoyances with the packaging, but there are benefits. I don't have a full list of them, but after the initial installation updating will be simpler, and faster, for one.

[GARoss]

17 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

An App can use all the same functions that any other program can, as far as I know.

There are annoyances with the packaging, but there are benefits. I don't have a full list of them, but after the initial installation updating will be simpler, and faster, for one.

All this app business is weird. Reading elsewhere in this forum I ran across the (I'll call it the core) of the app. You'll need to toggle on " view/hidden files" to find the core.

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_2.0.0.1640_x64__3cqzy0nppv2rt\App

In that folder there's 1.22Gb of data. So, all the data is installed on my PC.

 

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, GARoss said:

You'll need to toggle on " view/hidden files" to find the core.

You need to do more than that, because not only is WindowsApps Hidden, it has permissions very carefully set so that no user, even an Administrator, can look inside that folder. If you can see the folders/files inside it, you've modified the default Windows permissions.

But you shouldn't need to see inside it. All the files you normally should need to interact with are located elsewhere.

[Jon S]

5 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

You need to do more than that, because not only is WindowsApps Hidden, it has permissions very carefully set so that no user, even an Administrator, can look inside that folder

Actually, you can just type/paste the full install path in the address bar of File Explorer and it will show the files with no complaints, no need to turn on show hidden files, not that this will be that useful to you. What you can't do is double click and enter the WindowsApp folder without Windows complaining about it. You can get the install path by opening a Windows Powershell and entering 'Get-AppxPackage -Name *AffinityDesigner*', without the quotes. Change Designer to Photo or Publisher for those Apps. There is a huge amount of misconception on this forum about what msix actually is.

[walt.farrell]

9 hours ago, Jon S said:

Actually, you can just type/paste the full install path in the address bar of File Explorer

Thanks. I hadn't figured that out.

Still have the problem that the path name changes with every update. The App Execution Alias is supposed to fix that, giving a stable name. But some applications don't seem to be able to accept the aliases, so that is still an issue.