Affinity Photo Beta 2.4 does not start

[VectorWhiz]

Affinity Photo Beta 2.4 does not start, both from the exe file and msi installation, regardless if I run it as a user or admin. I am running Windows 11, which is up to date. Designer and Publisher start after running them 3 times after they have previously crashed during starting up attempts. I uninstalled the programs, removed the .affinity directory, as I've read somewhere on the forums, and restarted the computer. After that I again installed the Designer (from exe file), Publisher (from exe file) and Photo (from both exe file and msi - in this order). I think there is something wrong with the installer or program software code. Please check and inform me via e-mail when the problem is solved. This has been going on since the 2.3 Beta update.

I get this error message when trying to change the access rights to full access in the user directory in which the Affinity files are present:

 

 

 

[walt.farrell]

Have you tried the retail versions, rather than the betas, @VectorWhiz?

You say you installed

26 minutes ago, VectorWhiz said:

Photo (from both exe file and msi - in this order).

Why did you install twice? And do you mean MSIX rather than MSI? Your only installer choices are .exe and .msix, and you should not have both installed (nor should you use a mix of .exe and .msix across the 3 applications).

What anti-virus or anti-malware program(s) are you using, and have you tried disabling them?

[Callum]

This post was originally made in the V2 bugs section of the forum which is strictly for the release version of the apps. I have now moved it to the beta specific section of the forums, please ensure any future beta related bugs are posted here

 

[VectorWhiz]

@ Walt Farrel - I installed the programs twice, because Photo was not starting up and I read somewhere in the forums (which seemed to be working for a user), that all programs in the suit had to be uninstalled, and that the .affinity folder had to be removed as well, after which the computer should be restarted, before installing the programs are installed again. You are correct in that I should have used the msix, which I checked in explorer; it wasn't an msi file that I used for installation. But regardless of that, I always start with installing from the exe files and that should work, even beta versions, because in my opinion Serif issues Beta versions to see if functions work properly or should be changed. But for users to try beta versions, the program has to start in the first place. I see no other purpose to issue beta versions. So, installations from exe files or msix should at least allow the programs to start up, otherwise users are unable to check the programs' functionality. Also, if the regular versions contain bugs, I had hoped they were fixed in the beta versions. I did not install the programs from exe files and msix alongside each other. This is the last time I will use beta versions, because they gave me problems for months., assuming this is not going to help Serif in letting users try out beta versions. However if beta versions actually do at least start up, that could be a useful thing for Serif. And to answer your last question, I do not have anti-virus and anti-malware programs installed, except the default Defender which comes with Windows.

[Sean P]

Hi VectorWhiz,
Looking at that image it looks like your installation of Windows has some issues with permissions.

The error you're seeing is a Windows error that does relate to permissions. A cursory Google search does show a series of posts on the Microsoft site regarding these.

Looking at a previous post from yourself I can also see that you have modified the permissions for the 'WindowApps' folder yourself. These folders are for Sandboxed apps which is where the MSIX apps install to. Microsoft prevent access to this folder for security reasons and modifying this yourself will cause further problems, which it does look like you're now encountering. We would never recommend users to modify these permissions and are unable to support those who do.

Ultimately there isn't anything we're able to do with this as it is an operating system permissions issue you're encountering, rather than the software.