Affinity Photo 2.1 update to 2.2 launching 2.1 even after the update on Windows 11 Pro.

[RBorzea]

Is there a preferred method in which updates need to be made on Windows 11 Pro?

I launched Affinity Photo 2.1 and updated it. Upon updating it said to launch the 2.2 and it did temporarily. Once closed I clicked the shortcut from the desktop and it's constantly opening the 2.1 version which states it needs an update.

I looked in the Add & Remove Programs window and see 2 of each app for Affinity...

I looked for another Affinity Photo application but its just the main one in the main folder... Can someone please explain the proper method? Or if it simply a remove the whole app each time a new version comes out?!  

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, RBorzea said:

I looked in the Add & Remove Programs window and see 2 of each app for Affinity...

If they are all for the V2 apps (e.g., two Affinity Photo 2) then you've installed both the MSIX-based version and the EXE-based version, which is a recipe for confusion. You should decide which you want to have, and uninstall the other. It may be easier to just uninstall both, and then reinstall one.

7 minutes ago, RBorzea said:

Once closed I clicked the shortcut from the desktop and it's constantly opening the 2.1 version which states it needs an update.

Probably related to having multiple versions installed, and having updated the other one before, not the one you're clicking on now.

[RBorzea]

Hey Walt,

 

So I manually downloaded Affinity Photo 2.1 from the main website as an exe installer and the version 2.2.0 was also an exe installer... So it shouldn't be that as the issue.

I found a way to launch the 2.2.0 version but its weird as it doesn't not present to be a typical shortcut path to the executable...

[walt.farrell]

33 minutes ago, RBorzea said:

So it shouldn't be that as the issue.

If you have two entries, that's the only cause I've ever seen.

Do you also have two entries in the Windows Start menu?

If so:

1. Start the first one.
2. Start Task Manager.
3. Expand the listing for the application.
4. Right-click the second line of the listing and choose "Open file location".

Do the same for the second one. Compare the file locations between the two File Explorer windows.

[RBorzea]

So before I could even try that I decided to make life easier and simply uninstall the app. I uninstalled one and the duplicate disappeared also... But the duplicate size was also significantly smaller... Which made me think that the duplicate might have been a patch or something for the 2.2... unsure but upon re-installing things are fine now. Lets see what happens the next time.

Thank you again for the mental support Walt!

[sheepthief]

It's because the update msix file installs to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_2.2.0.2005_x64__<random string>, even if your original installation is in, for example, C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo 2.

Which is incredibly annoying, and should be considered a bug.

I've uninstalled it and will continue to use 2.1.0.

[Komatös]

2 hours ago, sheepthief said:

It's because the update msix file installs to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_2.2.0.2005_x64__<random string>, even if your original installation is in, for example, C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo 2.

Which is incredibly annoying, and should be considered a bug.

I've uninstalled it and will continue to use 2.1.0.

When you are on the updates page, you have the option to download the MSI/EXE versions instead of the MSIX. Use the text link(s) instead the blue bar button.

[RBorzea]

When it was an issue I also tried to find the other executable by doing a windows search for Photo.exe and it was only able to find the main one in the C:\Program Files\

Affinity\Photo 2\ directory, would it not have found that other in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ ?. I also went in there as I didn't know about that directory and looked into the Deleted folder and it was not in there either... Not sure if it would still reside after I removed it or not.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, RBorzea said:

Not sure if it would still reside after I removed it or not.

No; after removal it would be gone.

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, sheepthief said:

It's because the update msix file installs to C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityPhoto2_2.2.0.2005_x64__<random string>, even if your original installation is in, for example, C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo 2.

Which is incredibly annoying, and should be considered a bug.

I've uninstalled it and will continue to use 2.1.0.

It's not a bug. You just need to continue to install the correct version.

It would be nice if the Download prompt from the EXE version would take you directly to the EXE version, and not to a page where you have to choose the right version. But still not a bug, in my opinion.

[sheepthief]

6 hours ago, Komatös said:

When you are on the updates page, you have the option to download the MSI/EXE versions instead of the MSIX. Use the text link(s) instead the blue bar button.

Thanks, I completely missed that (which is hardly surprising).

[sheepthief]

4 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

It's not a bug. You just need to continue to install the correct version.

It would be nice if the Download prompt from the EXE version would take you directly to the EXE version, and not to a page where you have to choose the right version. But still not a bug, in my opinion.

I see it now - lets not argue about semantics, if you don't want to call it a bug then surely you can see that it's a very poor peice of design. The 'default' action has a highly undesirable effect. The alternative is not obvious, and if you do spot it there is no information as to which one is the appropriate one.

[walt.farrell]

47 minutes ago, sheepthief said:

and if you do spot it there is no information as to which one is the appropriate one.

If you have the EXE version already, then you took specific actions earlier to download it and install it, as the MSIX versions are what you would have gotten by default. You just need to remember to keep taking those same actions for each new update. So, yes, it could/should be better, but at least you're not being asked to do anything you haven't done before.