I am using aflaunch.exe for Affinity Photo 2, does Affinity Designer need something like that too?

[Greg T]

Hi,

After some consideration, I'm thinking about installing Affinity Designer and using it with CTA 5.

I'm curious if I need to download another launcher for Affinity Designer as it may have the same issue as Affinity Photo?

If I find both softwares useful, I might just get the Universal License instead of just the Photo license.

[v_kyr]

23 minutes ago, Greg T said:

I'm curious if I need to download another launcher for Affinity Designer as it may have the same issue as Affinity Photo?

If you mean in terms of Accessing Affinity V2 apps from other apps   then it should usually behave pretty much the same way on Win due to the installation method.

Quote

I am using aflaunch.exe for Affinity Photo 2, does Affinity Designer need something like that too?

Well, since that little "aflaunch.exe" help prog has appropriate cmd-line argument options ...

Quote

Usage: aflaunch -a name -b build [args]

-a name    : One of the following
    Designer2
    Photo2 [Default]
    Publisher2

-b build   : One of the following
    Retail [Default]
    Beta
    MSStore

args       : [Optional] All remaining arguments to be passed onto the target application (must be last)

... you will just need to call it another time and pass then over Designer2 (instead of Photo2) as an argument. - Just make two Win launch-dock or Start-up menu entries with the appropriate "aflaunch" calls for Photo2 & Designer2 then ...

• aflaunch -a Photo2
• aflaunch -a Designer2

[Greg T]

On 1/4/2023 at 8:22 AM, v_kyr said:

If you mean in terms of Accessing Affinity V2 apps from other apps   then it should usually behave pretty much the same way on Win due to the installation method.

Well, since that little "aflaunch.exe" help prog has appropriate cmd-line argument options ...

... you will just need to call it another time and pass then over Designer2 (instead of Photo2) as an argument. - Just make two Win launch-dock or Start-up menu entries with the appropriate "aflaunch" calls for Photo2 & Designer2 then ...

• aflaunch -a Photo2
• aflaunch -a Designer2

That doesn't work for CTA 5 as it can't accept parameters.

I wrote a Delphi console app to launch the launcher ..lol

program ExecuteApp;

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

{$R *.res}

uses
  Windows,
  ShellApi,
  System.SysUtils;

var
  i: Integer;
  cl: string;
  parms: string;
  SI: TStartupInfo;         
  PI: TProcessInformation;  

begin
    {
      [comment block]
      Create two separate exe files for each and change parms for each:

      parms := '-a Photo2';
      parms := '-a Designer2';
      [end of comment block]
    }

    cl := 'aflaunch.exe';
    parms := '-a Designer2';

    cl := cl + ' ' + parms;

    for i := 1 to ParamCount do
    begin
      cl := cl + ' "' + ParamStr(i) + '"';
    end;
    Writeln(cl);
    UniqueString(cl);

  // [comment] below will launch:
    try
      try
        writeln('begin');
        FillChar(SI, sizeof(SI), 0);
        FillChar(PI, sizeof(PI), 0);
        SI.cb := sizeof(SI);

        if not CreateProcess(nil, PChar(cl), nil, nil, true, 0, nil, nil, SI, PI) then
          RaiseLastOSError;

        WaitForSingleObject(PI.hProcess, INFINITE);

        CloseHandle(PI.hProcess);
        CloseHandle(PI.hThread);

        writeln('end');
      except
        on E: Exception do
          begin
            Writeln(E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
            ExitCode := 1;
         end;
      end;
    finally
      Writeln('Complete');
      //Readln;   //  [comment] uncomment Readln if you want the screen to pause and require you to hit enter to exit // = comment
      ExitCode := 0;
    end;
end.

 

I would have created a batch file but CTA 5 only accepts exe files.

You can download Delphi Community edition FREE and compile this source code.  Just make sure you create a File > New > Console Applicaton

You'll have to change parms to what ever program you want it to launch.  The launcher will pass parameters to aflaunch.exe.

 

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, Greg T said:

That doesn't work for CTA 5 as it can't accept parameters.

Blame CTA 5 for this! - Usually, there are many ways which lead to Rome, as your Delphi way shows! 😉