Windows 11 Laptop not Loading Affinity Photo 2

[v_kyr]

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

It appears that the program does not have the ability to create the C:\ProgramData\Affinity\Publisher\2.0 (Beta) folder.

The Q in turn is why, if it has been started/executed, as the OP says, with Admin rights here. - Another tryout would be to create that folder manually, in order to see what happens next/afterwards.

[NathanC]

Hey @AndyAtkins

I’ve had a discussion with the team internally and we just want to rule out this being anything network/Antivirus related which is blocking the app from communicating with the Affinity Server which is causing it to trip up when you interact (click) on any of the menus and potentially be the reason for the crash, particularly since event viewer points towards SocketException error (Network error).

Since Norton Antivirus appears to be running in the background this could be a potential factor if it’s ‘Smart Firewall’ is blocking the app from communicating via a false flag, so I would first recommend disabling this along with ‘auto protect’ temporarily to see if you can then make any further progress.

Guide: https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v116457581

If this works and you want to keep Norton, you should be able to add the below URLS into the firewall whitelist:

• https://affinity.api.serifservices.com
• https://affinity.serif.com

Failing that, if with all of Norton’s protections temporarily turned off if the app still crashes on first click, try completely disconnecting yourself from the Internet by turning off wireless and then try launching the app, this should put the app into trial mode which we can then look into further solutions from there to get it activated.

[AndyAtkins]

25 minutes ago, NathanC said:

Hey @AndyAtkins

I’ve had a discussion with the team internally and we just want to rule out this being anything network/Antivirus related which is blocking the app from communicating with the Affinity Server which is causing it to trip up when you interact (click) on any of the menus and potentially be the reason for the crash, particularly since event viewer points towards SocketException error (Network error).

Since Norton Antivirus appears to be running in the background this could be a potential factor if it’s ‘Smart Firewall’ is blocking the app from communicating via a false flag, so I would first recommend disabling this along with ‘auto protect’ temporarily to see if you can then make any further progress.

Guide: https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/v116457581

If this works and you want to keep Norton, you should be able to add the below URLS into the firewall whitelist:

• https://affinity.api.serifservices.com
• https://affinity.serif.com

Failing that, if with all of Norton’s protections temporarily turned off if the app still crashes on first click, try completely disconnecting yourself from the Internet by turning off wireless and then try launching the app, this should put the app into trial mode which we can then look into further solutions from there to get it activated.

Hi Nathan. Thanks for continuing to try to resolve this. I've just run through those options in turn (except adding the urls to the whitelist). In each case, the result continues to be the registration splash screen appearing and then disappearing on first click. I've looked at the various Norton logs and can find nothing related to Affinity. This launch glitch seems to be limited to Photo 2 right now, as other apps have been subsequently installed and launched.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, AndyAtkins said:

...In each case, the result continues to be the registration splash screen appearing and then disappearing on first click. ...

Personally I've never used silent installations, but maybe there is a way to omit the registration phase, or to pass over all registration credentials during an installation, in order to omit afterwards that reg panel default popup during the app startup phase (?).

So maybe something like ...

Quote

Disable Registration

Affinity Photo Silent Install with Registration Disabled

MsiExec.exe /i Affinity.msi NO_REGISTRATION_PROPERTY=1 /qn

... OR ...

Quote

Include Email & Product Key Authentication

Affinity Photo Silent Install with Product Key

MsiExec.exe /i Affinity.msi EMAIL_PROPERTY="admin@companyname.com" PRODUCT_KEY_PROPERTY="XXXXXXXXXXXX" /qn

... just an idea which came to my mind for doing some further behavior tryouts.

[NathanC]

18 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Personally I've never used silent installations, but maybe there is a way to omit the registration phase, or to pass over all registration credentials during an installation, in order to omit afterwards that reg panel default popup during the app startup phase (?).

As far as i'm aware silent installations are currently limited to multi-user licenses (Corp/Edu) so i'm not sure this would be possible with single license users.

 

19 hours ago, AndyAtkins said:

Hi Nathan. Thanks for continuing to try to resolve this. I've just run through those options in turn (except adding the urls to the whitelist). In each case, the result continues to be the registration splash screen appearing and then disappearing on first click. I've looked at the various Norton logs and can find nothing related to Affinity. This launch glitch seems to be limited to Photo 2 right now, as other apps have been subsequently installed and launched.

Thanks for trying and sticking with us, we've noticed that the initial crash report you posted refuses to debug (oddly the second one works fine, though) This can sometimes be an indication that you may be running a Windows insider build which could be causing the problem, the dxdiag report doesn't include your full windows version number so I could be wrong, though.

To check if you're enrolled in the insider program and receiving updates, see the guide below. If you are enrolled you'll need to unenroll and then complete a clean installation of Windows to roll-back to a stable/non insider windows build.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsinsider/leave-program

[AndyAtkins]

3 hours ago, NathanC said:

As far as i'm aware silent installations are currently limited to multi-user licenses (Corp/Edu) so i'm not sure this would be possible with single license users.

 

Thanks for trying and sticking with us, we've noticed that the initial crash report you posted refuses to debug (oddly the second one works fine, though) This can sometimes be an indication that you may be running a Windows insider build which could be causing the problem, the dxdiag report doesn't include your full windows version number so I could be wrong, though.

To check if you're enrolled in the insider program and receiving updates, see the guide below. If you are enrolled you'll need to unenroll and then complete a clean installation of Windows to roll-back to a stable/non insider windows build.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsinsider/leave-program

Hi Nathan,
My Win11 build is Home Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621. Apparently, this was originally an Insider build last year, but was a full release recently. To be certain, I've had a good check around and my MS account is, unfortunately, definitely not enrolled.

[NathanC]

15 minutes ago, AndyAtkins said:

Hi Nathan,
My Win11 build is Home Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621. Apparently, this was originally an Insider build last year, but was a full release recently. To be certain, I've had a good check around and my MS account is, unfortunately, definitely not enrolled.

Just so I can see your full windows build version (including the numbers after the 22621 build number decimal) could you send me a screenshot of your 'Windows Specifications' which can be found under Windows Settings > System > About? I just want to rule out any irregularities with your current windows build. The dropbox link I sent earlier is still open if you want to send it to me privately, i've linked it again below.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/8bN4ed11YIeZ4b4JXakx

[AndyAtkins]

19 minutes ago, NathanC said:

Just so I can see your full windows build version (including the numbers after the 22621 build number decimal) could you send me a screenshot of your 'Windows Specifications' which can be found under Windows Settings > System > About? I just want to rule out any irregularities with your current windows build. The dropbox link I sent earlier is still open if you want to send it to me privately, i've linked it again below.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/8bN4ed11YIeZ4b4JXakx

Thanks Nathan. On it's way via DropBox.

[NathanC]

23 hours ago, AndyAtkins said:

Thanks Nathan. On it's way via DropBox.

Thanks for sending it over, nothing unusual about your particular Windows build, and it turns out one of my devices is also running the same build so it's likely not a factor in this case.

I'm just in the process of raising your issue internally, and we've noticed that OpenCL/GL compatibility pack appears to potentially be installed onto your device (likely via the MS store, see here: https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/opencl™-and-opengl®-compatibility-pack/9NQPSL29BFFF?hl=en-us&gl=us) Back in V1 this used to cause an immediate app crash but was fixed, but we just want to rule this out as a potential factor unlikely as it is, so if it's installed remove it and then reboot your device and try launching Photo again.

Failing that, could you send me your log.txt file? If you've got the .MSI version of the app installed still this can be found under %Appdata%/Affinity/Photo/2.0. Apologies on the continual file requests, this is a particularly unusual and stubborn case of the app failing to launch so more info/logs is always appreciated.

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by NathanC

[AndyAtkins]

17 hours ago, NathanC said:

Thanks for sending it over, nothing unusual about your particular Windows build, and it turns out one of my devices is also running the same build so it's likely not a factor in this case.

I'm just in the process of raising your issue internally, and we've noticed that OpenCL/GL compatibility pack appears to potentially be installed onto your device (likely via the MS store, see here: https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/opencl™-and-opengl®-compatibility-pack/9NQPSL29BFFF?hl=en-us&gl=us) Back in V1 this used to cause an immediate app crash but was fixed, but we just want to rule this out as a potential factor unlikely as it is, so if it's installed remove it and then reboot your device and try launching Photo again.

Failing that, could you send me your log.txt file? If you've got the .MSI version of the app installed still this can be found under %Appdata%/Affinity/Photo/2.0. Apologies on the continual file requests, this is a particularly unusual and stubborn case of the app failing to launch so more info/logs is always appreciated.

 

Hi Nathan,
I can't find the OpenCL Compatibility Pack in Windows Features and it's not showing as installed in my MS Store account. The only reference I can find to OpenCL on the Surface is under the Iris Xe Graphics drivers where there's a DLL file called OpenCL.dll in the System32 folder.
I've just uploaded the log file to DropBox.
Thanks,

Andy

[NathanC]

11 minutes ago, AndyAtkins said:

Hi Nathan,
I can't find the OpenCL Compatibility Pack in Windows Features and it's not showing as installed in my MS Store account. The only reference I can find to OpenCL on the Surface is under the Iris Xe Graphics drivers where there's a DLL file called OpenCL.dll in the System32 folder.
I've just uploaded the log file to DropBox.
Thanks,

Thanks, I've just reviewed your log.txt file and it looks like 'Pointer Support' is enabling itself on app startup, this is a setting specific to Surface Pro tablets to allow them to use the stylus pen, but it's currently broken and can cause the app to crash on start-up when enabled on certain devices. I've not ruled this as a potential factor up to this point as I was aware this isn't a default config setting that should be enabled in Affinity apps but this doesn't appear to be the case (maybe it's enabled by default for certain devices that support it).

Evidently there isn't a way for you to turn this setting off currently since you can't get into the app, so Instead I've made sure this is turned off in my copy of Photo and i'll PM you a copy of my UserInterfacePreferences.XML, with photo closed if you delete your existing one and put the one i've sent you in it's place and then start your app, this will hopefully allow you to launch the app. The XML referenced can be found in %Appdata%/Affinity/Photo/2.0/Settings

Fingers crossed on this one.

[AndyAtkins]

17 minutes ago, NathanC said:

Thanks, I've just reviewed your log.txt file and it looks like 'Pointer Support' is enabling itself on app startup, this is a setting specific to Surface Pro tablets to allow them to use the stylus pen, but it's currently broken and can cause the app to crash on start-up when enabled on certain devices. I've not ruled this as a potential factor up to this point as I was aware this isn't a default config setting that should be enabled in Affinity apps but this doesn't appear to be the case (maybe it's enabled by default for certain devices that support it).

Evidently there isn't a way for you to turn this setting off currently since you can't get into the app, so Instead I've made sure this is turned off in my copy of Photo and i'll PM you a copy of my UserInterfacePreferences.XML, with photo closed if you delete your existing one and put the one i've sent you in it's place and then start your app, this will hopefully allow you to launch the app. The XML referenced can be found in %Appdata%/Affinity/Photo/2.0/Settings

Fingers crossed on this one.

Hi Nathan,

You can uncross your fingers and give yourself 10/10 for persistence - it worked! An interesting issue, if obscure, as I know a few creatives running Surfaces instead of MacBooks, etc. these days.
Many thanks,
Andy

[v_kyr]

Interestingly there was a similar, also tablet device and driver related problem, detected and solved in a another thread ...

 

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, AndyAtkins said:

... as I know a few creatives running Surfaces instead of MacBooks, etc. these days.

Well maybe it's an interesting device for creatives, but for developers it's a nightmare. - A dev colleage has one of these MS (a very high end equiped) Surface devices, but wasn't able to use and do certain Java backend related project programming tasks with it, as a bunch of needed dev software didn't installed correctly and doesn't run at all under that machine. After a lot of frustration and two days of lost time for him, by trying to get things to run on that MS computer, the company finally gave him a MacBook Pro 16" in order to be able to work at all on the projects. - So for none Windows system developers I can't really recommend these devices.