Installation directory

[Thomas Herren]

Due to lacking space on C drive, I choose a directory on D drive for installing Affinity Photo 2. I chose the exe-file (not the MSIX) because of accessability from other editors. But AP 2 installs on C despite indication of a directory in D. The app cannot be transferred from C to D. With the MSIX-file transfer is possible, but other editors do not find the installation directory of the MSIX-file. How can I install the exe-file on D directly?

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums.

Some portions of the application always installed to the C drive even in V1. Most would go where you specified, though.

Did the installer ask you for the installation location? If it did, then at least some of the application should have installed there. What does File Explorer show? Is the directory present? What does it contain?

 

[Thomas Herren]

Thank you

It installed to the newly created directorey on the D drive and was present. Then I installed the Nik Collection, also in a specifically created directory on D drive, Affinity Photo 2 as the host application. When working on images in AP2, Nik plugins suddenly did not open anymore (after the third image), and I got the warning of not enough space. Then I saw, that AP2 was again on the C drive. It's strange that the file directory on D indeed contains the Nik Collection, but the Apps and Features in Windows preferences show iton the C drive. Then I deinstalled AP2 (exe file), reinstalled the MSIX-file on C (default) and transferred it to D, where I am unable to locate it. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Thomas Herren

[emmrecs01]

5 hours ago, Thomas Herren said:

reinstalled the MSIX-file on C (default) and transferred it to D

I am not sure you can do this!

By design, the MSIX installer places the actual program files in the WindowsApps folder on C:\  This location is "sandboxed" and so not accessible to the user without making specific changes to User Permissions.  So, did you do this?

I have the great majority of my programs on D:\, including all the Affinity version 1 and 2 apps.  But, as @walt.farrell wrote, some data for all of them is installed on C:\ by default and the advice is that users should NOT attempt to move it!

Are you running Win 11?  You mention "Apps and Features" which is not part of Win 10, which I have, but I assume it is the equivalent of "Programs and Features" (in Win 10).  Perhaps Win 11 deals with program installation locations differently to Win 10?

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, emmrecs01 said:

I am not sure you can do this!

By design, the MSIX installer places the actual program files in the WindowsApps folder on C:\  This location is "sandboxed" and so not accessible to the user without making specific changes to User Permissions.  So, did you do this?

Windows provides a function to move MSIX apps from C to another drive. It works for some users, not for others.

[walt.farrell]

@Thomas Herren: Installing the programs (EXE/MSI) to drive D would not move the internal data (brushes, assets, etc.) and the temporary storage directory used by Affinity to D. Those would remain in the AppData directory established by Windows, which is always on drive C. 

You can move the Affinity part of that to another drive, by playing games with creating a new directory on D, copying the Affinity data from C into it, deleting the Affinity directory on C, and then creating a symlink (junction) from the AppData directory on C to the directory on drive D. This is unsupported, but has worked successfully for me in the past, and I've posted about it before. (Searching the forums for mklink and then filtering the results to those I posted will find them. I can't provide a pointer right now. Sorry.)

Better would be to free up space on C, or enlarge C, of course.