V.2 installation location

[Radiorog]

V.1 apps allowed to install anywhere on the computer. V.2 doesn't do this.

I install apps on a separate drive from the OS, to avoid losing settings if the OS drive fails.  I found no way to select a separate drive location to install V.2 apps.

Is this on purpose?  Or did I miss some hidden setting that would allow me to do this?

Thank you.

Roger

[Mark Ingram]

Hi Roger, it's covered in the FAQ if you scroll down a little. You can move the installation to another drive afterwards (or change the default drive in your system settings):

 

[Komatös]

If the OS fails, it doesn't matter where the programmes are stored. After a reinstallation, the programmes have to be reinstalled anyway and all programme settings are gone. It would make more sense to regularly back up the directories with the settings files.

[Radiorog]

Mark:

Thank you. I tied this, and I guess it worked.  Kind of hard to tell where it went during the 'move'.

Komatos:

Yes, I understand that. Buy I often install apps as 'portable' when that's available. That puts all files and settings in a single folder along with the executable.  Makes managing the app easier, and as a fail-safe if the OS crashes.

Thanks for the help.

Roger

[signingin54]

7 hours ago, Mark Ingram said:

Hi Roger, it's covered in the FAQ if you scroll down a little. You can move the installation to another drive afterwards (or change the default drive in your system settings):

 

No, I tried to move Affinity Designer 2 from drive C where it installed to drive D. It failed to move and gave me some funky Windows error code. Evidently you can move apps that you install from the Windows Store but not from the Serif Store, which is where I had bought Affinity Designer. I wish I could get a refund from Serif so I could purchase the app from the Windows Store. I don't have much space left on C and I can't install all 3 Affinity apps there.

[Brian_J]

@signingin54 Did you try moving the Designer 2 using the method provided in the FAQ?

 

[signingin54]

Yes, I did try that, but when I attempted to move the app, it failed with an error message. It may be that you can't move an application that you didn't buy from the Microsoft Store. I bought Affinity Designer from the Serif Store. I wish I could get a refund on the purchase so I could buy it again from the Microsoft Store.

[Brian_J]

43 minutes ago, signingin54 said:

I bought Affinity Designer from the Serif Store.

Bummer. Those instructions are supposed to work for apps purchased from the Affinity Store. Sorry it didn't work for you, man.

Serif is working on providing the installer that I believe would resolve your issue. When it becomes available, I guess you would have to uninstall and reinstall the apps.

 

[Terry44]

I went and google searched this and from what I can tell there isn't really a definite official answer.  Here are some of the things I found though, some coming directly from Microsoft.

1: The Move Apps feature in Windows 10 / 11 only works for apps installed from the microsoft app store and not side loaded applications installed manually or running installers from elsewhere like the Affinity Store etc...

My Note:  Maybe at one time this was correct, but I have seen people do this successfully and the option on most of my "side loaded" software are movable.  
                  This Information about not working with side loaded apps I got from the Microsoft support site and then I paraphrased it above.

2: Microsoft on their help site suggests when you have the issue you are describing to do something that Affinity Serif has deemed incorrect and will cause loss of ability to update the affinity apps or possibly invalidate your affinity license.  I thought it was interesting that the suggestion with details was provided from Microsoft though.

Direct quote from the person that tried the instructions: 
"Ok, after performing the changes you suggested I tried moving and still had no success. I restarted the PC and still nothing."

3: Another recommendation linked to from the Microsoft support site is to use a 3rd party application such as Aomei PA to move the app in question.  I have this software and I loaded it up and looked through their selection of movable apps on my computer.  I have the PAID PRO version.  It did not find or list Affinity Apps at all, even version 1 which is installed via MSI installers.  No GO on this choice.

4: A fellow member of the forum and fellow user of Affinity apps, Frank Mu, in the long thread about the MSIX installation format has said that the reason this will not work is that the Cluster Size of the file system on the DESTINATION drive needs to be 4k due to a bug in WIndows.  
 

I didn't link to the Microsoft support pages for the above suggestions or information because they contained other things that didn't apply OR links to stuff that Serif doesn't want you to try.  You can Google search and find them in the first page of listings for this issue if you need the precise wording and instructions that didn't seem to work for people.  

Not helpful but is what I found about this.  When you get it to work let us all know what you did.

 

[Dan C]

On 11/17/2022 at 1:13 AM, signingin54 said:

No, I tried to move Affinity Designer 2 from drive C where it installed to drive D. It failed to move and gave me some funky Windows error code.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble and our apologies for the delayed response here!

We're investigating this further, as we're seeing a few reports from certain users who are unable to move the app, however this does work correctly for other users.

Can you please confirm for me, what is the error code shown on screen when trying to move the apps installed location?

Many thanks in advance

[signingin54]

3 hours ago, Dan C said:

Sorry to hear you're having trouble and our apologies for the delayed response here!

We're investigating this further, as we're seeing a few reports from certain users who are unable to move the app, however this does work correctly for other users.

Can you please confirm for me, what is the error code shown on screen when trying to move the apps installed location?

Many thanks in advance

I bought the Affinity Designer 2 and Affinity Photo 2 apps from the Serif store, not from the Microsoft Store. The Affinity Designer 2 app installed on the C drive, even though I had specified the D drive in the Settings app. When I went into the Windows 11 Settings app and tried to move Affinity Designer 2 to my D drive, I got this error message. Repeated attempts, rebooting the PC, didn't improve matters. So I didn't even bother to try to install and move Affinity Photo 2. I asked you people for a refund instead.

[Dan C]

Thank you for confirming that for me, and for the screenshot provided - I'll be providing this to our team internally for further investigation now.

I'm very sorry to hear this, though I certainly understand your decision. Our team are working on traditional .MSI based installers for Affinity V2, so we hope you may try V2 once more when these are available.

Many thanks once again