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No .exe, no interest


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16 minutes ago, Designer1234 said:

The funniest thing is that unpacked installer actually seems to give us working portable app and then we can create shortcuts, specify path to exe... :P 

I already think about doing serif's job and writing an application which extracts the MSIX archives, installs the files to the users destined location and registers the file associations automatically.

I have to look if there's something like this out there already, so I don't have to "waste" my time on that matter. (didn't find anything yet)

 

PS: It's also not "really" portable that way, the program settings and license information are stored in

%localappdata%\Affinity

 

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Yeah, don't get me wrong, I've been using affinity for years now and I adore their software. I'm super excited to start using V2 as well (I immediately purchased the universal license the day-of), however the msix thing really took me by surprise. As a programmer, I'm pretty picky about where things go on my computer and I'm terrified when I see those options abstracted away from me. I had to dig through the hidden WindowsApps folder to find the software just to create a shortcut. I don't think I'm a fan of this msix format at all.

I think it would be a good idea to offer an alternative exe on top of the msix since some people/companies seem to have problems with the msix, specifically because they can't customize anything. I would hate to see people leaving because of this new format. It might seem like a tiny thing, but trust me, some people/companies might go back to adobe because of this, and you do NOT want to give adobe that win.

Now, I can foresee something being a problem for affinity if they release an alternative installer and that's the studio link feature. I wonder if they based the studio link system for windows on this new msix installer structure. If so, I really hope they change that. (And again, since I'm a programmer, if they release an exe installer, I wouldn't have a problem with affinity allowing the user to tell the software where the other installations are (like specifying a folder path) to make studio link work... Potential advanced user feature!!!)

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Read here, and understand why!  

 

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB  | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.3296)
AMD A10-9600P | dGPU R7 M340 (2 GB)  | 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz | Windows 10 Home 22H2 (1945.3803) 

Affinity Suite V 2.4 & Beta 2.(latest)
Better translations with: https://www.deepl.com/translator  
Interested in a robust (selfhosted) PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF

Life is too short to have meaningless discussions!

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I don't like the MSIX installer either - but with security in mind it is the future.
This way it is possible to install a large program with lots of libraries on a secured system.

I suggest that Serif make their Icons public domain and release them in a ZIP file to make it possible to create short cuts.

If you install the image presentation/managemant system fotoARRAY (www.fotoarray.com) this will also install a free executable called Start_fotoARRAY.exe. This executable can be renamed and will then use its own set of properties. By clicking on the executable you can configurate what it should do with files passed to it, i.e. when called by another program. It can execute the commandline "AffinityPhoto2" and send the file there. That works really nicely and is useful to add additional startup parameters or call two programs with the same set of files. BTW: You can do something similar with a small patch file, but some applications refuse to call a BAT instead of an EXE. 

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3 hours ago, Komatös said:

Read here, and understand why! 

Still - I don't care. It only causes a problems for the users. The only third party apps on my PC that are using either UWP form or at least new Windows Installer are - except the MS apps itself (however I still use old Office 2019 versions without stupid forced updates and UI changes) - Deezer and TwinkleTray... 

10 hours ago, Nox said:

PS: It's also not "really" portable that way, the program settings and license information are stored in

And THAT'S GREAT! :) I don't know why when I've opened "portable version" I was asked once again for the license registration, but then it turned put that all my settings were loaded - recent files list, studio preset... If it worked this way all the time it would be the simplest solution for the integration, path specifying etc. :D 

BTW - it's really annoying how MS is destroying simple, working and useful mechanisms in their OS... 

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1 hour ago, Designer1234 said:

Damn - I've noticed that "portable" app does have some problems. All new file default presets are missing :(

From a bit of testing everything seems to work, apart from the presets and Studio Link (Publisher).

I'm sure Studio Link can be fixed by hacking some Symlinks in place, not sure how to fix the presets tho.

Going to set up a VM later to test this stuff.

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Now - don't know why - brushes stopped to work too... So, portable app is not a solution :(
BTW - it theoretically uses the same .Affinity settings folder in C:\Usders\"UserName" as the installed version and theoretically shares these settings because when I renamed presets category in portable app it was renamed in installed app too. Unfortunately portable app doesn't use brushes and presets...

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On 11/12/2022 at 12:33 PM, rvst said:

I posted a similar complaint. I don't use MS Store apps. I don't even use the standard Windows 10 menu, instead using Stardock's menu which looks like Windows 7, precisely because I don't want to see these Windows store apps and I detest this ridiculous tablet interface on a high resolution dual monitor setup.

I just want to be able to use the new suite in a "normal" windows desktop experience. That is to say, have an icon on my desktop that I can double click. And oh boy, do I have to jump through hoops for that to happen.

I had to copy all three program executables out of the installation folder (so I can use them for the icon for my desktop shortcut) and then make a desktop shortcut to point to the iconless executable shortcut in %APPDATA%\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps. And trust me, if you're not a technically literate user, even finding and accessing those executables in the first place is non-trivial. 

I totally don't see what Affinity is trying to do by moving to a Windows App model. It just degrades the experience. 

Oh, and the program startup time is 3x slower than Affinity 1. And because it's a Windows App, I don't get to choose where to install it, so it wastes precious space on my system drive when it could instead, in a normal app, be installed to a user-defined location. 

EDIT: Before anybody points me to this link on how to create a desktop shortcut. I know how to do this. The problem is that the shortcut is created entirely without an icon in one case, and tiny, illegible icons in the other cases. Here's an image of my manually created icons on the left and the icons that get created if you try to create them using the recommended method on the right. It looks like a dog's breakfast. 

image.png.679e80c30498987a7d686df17eaaad8c.png

The iconless shortcut is driving me crazy, how did you reach the part to get the icons for AP?

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11 hours ago, Muneer404 said:

The iconless shortcut is driving me crazy, how did you reach the part to get the icons for AP?

With the programs open, I just right-clicked and pinned them to my taskbar. The icons are preserved in that case. It's an alternative if you can live without them being out on the desktop screen. I usually pin my favorite programs to the taskbar anyway.

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52 minutes ago, Mistro said:

With the programs open, I just right-clicked and pinned them to my taskbar. The icons are preserved in that case. It's an alternative if you can live without them being out on the desktop screen. I usually pin my favorite programs to the taskbar anyway.

You can also add a keyboard shortcut as well

shortcut.PNG

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1 hour ago, Mark Ingram said:

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!

Hi and thanks a lot! 

I am looking forward to this!

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One of the benefits of MSIX was listed as easier upgrades. If I stick with MSIX will my apps update automagically? Or do I have to download new installers still? 

Since I don't need to change the default install location and I never need to poke around the install directory, the switch to MSIX had not bothered me. If it updates itself, I'll stick with it, too. 

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Using *. msi and installing in WindowsApps folder prevents Photo being  linked to other apps.  I use Faststone Viewer and now can't edit in V2 using the "Edit in External Program" option.  Is there a workaround for this problem? I have also tried linking it to PhotoLab5, same problem.

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1 hour ago, Mark Ingram said:

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!

A good decision.

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38 minutes ago, Horseflesh said:

One of the benefits of MSIX was listed as easier upgrades. If I stick with MSIX will my apps update automagically? Or do I have to download new installers still? 

Since I don't need to change the default install location and I never need to poke around the install directory, the switch to MSIX had not bothered me. If it updates itself, I'll stick with it, too. 

Yes - if you already have the MSIX installed, it'll prompt you to update and perform the update in-app. There's no need for you to change anything 🙂

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2 hours ago, Mark Ingram said:

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!

Sounds amazing, thank you so much for listening to your community and customers!

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2 hours ago, RedSnapper said:

Using *. msi and installing in WindowsApps folder prevents Photo being  linked to other apps.  I use Faststone Viewer and now can't edit in V2 using the "Edit in External Program" option.  Is there a workaround for this problem? I have also tried linking it to PhotoLab5, same problem.

Two solutions for the msix file while we wait for a fix from Affinity:  use a .bat file  or use a helper .exe program as the external editor in Faststone. These solutions are scattered in multiple forum topics through hundreds of posts. You can find specific information at

Walt Farrel's .bat file
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/170363-affinity-photo-2-installation-directory-plugins-windows-system/&do=findComment&comment=977539

and at Mark Ingram's .exe file
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/170283-affinity-photo-v2-exe-file-location/page/4/#comment-983460

 

I prefer the .bat file for now though I had problems running it as follows:

I created the .bat file using Windows Notepad. When I tried saving the .bat file to the desktop I encountered various permission problems from Windows. This despite the fact I am running on a Local Administrator account. I then saved it to my Documents folder which I almost never use for anything. You can put it anywhere, but I don't want to lose track of it and forget it exists.

Faststone accepted the .bat file as an external editor. I then tried calling the external editor from an image file in Faststone. Avast One identified this as a threat until I created an exception. It's working fine now except once in a while APhoto2 launches, loads the file and then vanishes. I then just repeat the process in Faststone and APhoto2 opens and stays on screen. 

Affinity Photo 2.4.0 (MSI) and 1.10.6; Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 (MSI) and 1.10.6. Windows 10 Home x64 version 22H2.
Dell XPS 8940, 16 GB Ram, Intel Core i7-11700K @ 3.60 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

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Great news, I was going to buy it but my IT boss has said no (no msi, no software). I find it refreshing that a software company that actually listened. It would have been a shame to destroy all you have done over such a, in my opinion, rather backward decision. We don't have to follow MS all the time. Independence is great.

Will your system requirements regrading Windows version stiil be so rigid.

Will you also offer a discount for the msi version when it comes, cheeky I know but you have to ask. The users that didn't get it know will then miss out.

Privately I will stick to V1 until things change and is the decision to no longer support V1 set in stone.

 

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23 minutes ago, Stephen_M said:

Will you also offer a discount for the msi version when it comes, cheeky I know but you have to ask. The users that didn't get it know will then miss out.

People who can download the MSIX for V2 (owners of a publisher 2 license on Windows or owners of a universal license) will be able to download and use the MSI instead. No extra cost over your V2 purchase 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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