Activation screen is completly white after first start up

[Shuri]

Hello,

we tested the trial version on another computer and there worked everything fine.
Now we purchased 2 universal licenses for the computer we tested before on it and another one.
The new computer got just a new clean Win10 21H2 installation.

When I install any Affinity product (publisher, designer, photo) and start it for the first time I get the loading screen where it says it loads the fonts ect.
After this I get a white screen (I assume it's the license activation screen) and I can't do anything anymore.

I don't know where to paste the ID and password for the activation.

How to fix the problem?

Thanks in advance.

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Shuri

[NathanC]

Hi @Shuri welcome to the forums,

I have a few follow up queries below:

Could you confirm if the Activation window is unresponsive/frozen or is still responding but completely empty, If you click on the Publisher window, does it then appear as 'Not Responding'?

Could you also confirm if you originally purchased and downloaded them from the Affinity store or from the Microsoft store? Does the issue persist following a reboot of the machine and re-installation?

Many thanks 🙂

 

[Shuri]

On 4/21/2023 at 3:26 PM, NathanC said:

Hi @Shuri welcome to the forums,

I have a few follow up queries below:

Could you confirm if the Activation window is unresponsive/frozen or is still responding but completely empty, If you click on the Publisher window, does it then appear as 'Not Responding'?

Could you also confirm if you originally purchased and downloaded them from the Affinity store or from the Microsoft store? Does the issue persist following a reboot of the machine and re-installation?

Many thanks 🙂

 

It's responding but completly empty. I can hover over the white field and can see how the cursor is changing. On Affinity Photo 2 I paste the ID and password blindly and pressed enter. After this the window was gone and it seemed like the program want to start. But it stays in the task bar and nothing happens. Only thing I can do then is to kill the process with the task manager.

I confirm that we purchased it originally and downloaded it from the website. On the first one with the trial version. As first I used the same installation files after it wasn't working I downloaded the files again from the purchased license website with the same result. I restarted the computer already and reinstalled the software aswell. Same result.

By the way we using the .EXE files because we don't have the Microsoft Store in our Windows images integrated.

 

Greetings

[Shuri]

Hello,

 

any solution here yet?
The employee needs to start working next week and I still cannot finish the installation properly.
And even when I paste blindly the ID and password from the E-Mail the program won't start.

I really need urgent help here please.

 

Greetings

[NathanC]

Hi @Shuri,

Could you try opening the application with Hardware Acceleration disabled using the NoOCL flag, I have provided a link to a thread below which has the full instructions, see the section for the EXE/MSI installation.

 

[Shuri]

4 minutes ago, NathanC said:

Hi @Shuri,

Could you try opening the application with Hardware Acceleration disabled using the NoOCL flag, I have provided a link to a thread below which has the full instructions, see the section for the EXE/MSI installation.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately it ends in the same result.

Still the same white screen.

 

Greetings

[NathanC]

Thanks for confirming, could you advise if this machine is running as a part of a Hypervisor/Virtual Machine or is it a standalone machine?

Also, you mentioned that you've used the .EXE for installation as you don't have the MS store on your Windows image, is this because you're using a specific edition of windows? Could you possibly provide a bit more detail on this? Is this the same for the other PC's where the installation via the .EXE worked?

Many thanks 

[Shuri]

The first one is the one where it's not working.
The second one is the one where we tested with the trial version. But the employee is in vacation and took the notebook with her. That's why different OS version.

[NathanC]

Thanks, to confirm the first device is a standalone Windows Desktop/Machine and is not a virtualised desktop?

This could be a major factor, the other unusual point you mentioned is that the OS doesn't have the MS store but the build appears to be the standard Windows 10 Professional , this could indicate that there are other missing dependancies resulting in the app failing to launch correctly, is there any way you can confirm if this was the case with the other device where the trial worked?

 

[Shuri]

It's normal Dell Notebooks - Latitude 3420 and 3520.

It's normal Windows 10 21H2 images where the MS store got removed. The installation image is the same for the 3420 and 3520. The 3420 is just already in use for a couple of month. The 3520 is for a new employee who have to get Affinity software aswell.

On the 3420 all Affinity software in trial version was working. That was the reason why we decided the purchase 2 licenses for it.

But because you mention it. The 3420 got Microsoft To-Do installed manually. Means because of it's only a MS store app we needed to download the Microsoft.Services.Store.Engagement.Appx the UI.Appx and the To-Do.AppxBundle to install it with powershell.

I will install the .appx files on the 3520 and try it again.

Greetings

[Shuri]

Same result.

I installed the Microsoft.Services.Store.Engagement.Appx and the UI.Appx, restarted the Notebook and still the same result.

That was the only diffrent from the Windows image/ installed software.

I tried a reinstall after this too. Same result.

 

Greetings

[NathanC]

If you're able to get the .MS store re-installed on the device, could you try removing the .MSI version of the app and then install the Microsoft store version of the app, or alternatively download the standard .MSIX installer to confirm if this has any impact? You will be able to use the same Affinity ID details to activate it even though you purchased the app via the Affinity store.

[Shuri]

It's not wanted that the full MS store is available and on the Latitude 3420 it's working with the MS store removed too.

There have to be another solution.

[NathanC]

Could you try the below to completely factory reset the app's local settings in case these are interfering:

1. Press Win + R to bring up run and Go to C:\users\**Accountusernamehere** (replace this with the windows account name)
2. Within this directory there should be a .affinity folder, rename this to .affinityold
3. Re-install the app again and try re-activating and launching.

If it still fails, although unlikely if the PC has been cleanly installed could you confirm if creating a new temporary Windows user and running the app off of that user works or results in the same problem? This can help rule out anything within the user account's local environment causing the problem.

[Shuri]

I uninstalled all programs, renamed the .affinity folder and deleted the old userprofile.

I installed now on the local Administrator useraccount and it results in the same problem. 😢

[NathanC]

Sorry to hear that, this is not an issue that we have had reported for us before, as such there is a lot of trial and error in confirming what exact component is the root cause of the problem. I'm currently discussing this internally with other members on the team, could you provide us with the Log.txt file? this can be found within the local publisher folder, to get to this folder bring up run and then enter in the following:

%userprofile%\.affinity\Publisher\2.0

Also, could you confirm if you potentially have any 3rd party apps running in the background/taskbar which could be interfering with the app that could be closed?

[Shuri]

As I mention already - these both notebooks are exactly same installed. We using a deployment software to automate the OS installation and software installation.
The only different between the 2 notebooks is the model (3420 and 3520) and that the 3420 got Microsoft To-Do manually installed by powershell.

But even this I installed already on the new one with the same result.
Of course we got a ESET antivirus but this is also installed on the 3420 where it was working. I don't know if there is any different between the trial installation files and the installtion files from the licensed version? On the trial was the

I reinstalled the Windows again. (same image, same installed software - without the Microsoft To-Do) First login with the local Administrator and I was using again the downloaded .EXE from your license management website and now it's working....

Crazy 🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

Thanks for your support ❤️

[Shuri]

It's just a small thing - but why does I need to activate it again for the employee user after I did the activation already with the local Administrator?

Isn't the license per device and not per user?

[NathanC]

Happy to hear that you managed to get it working following the re-install.

The License files are kept within the .affinity folder which is stored in the local C:\users\**username** directory, since this is a folder is local to the user account it will ask you for the activation details again if you attempt to install it on another user account on the same device.

[Shuri]

Okay I see but I didn't used now 2 licenses for this one computer, right?

[NathanC]

4 minutes ago, Shuri said:

Okay I see but I didn't used now 2 licenses for this one computer, right?

Correct, you will have only used one license for that device.