bug Cannot uninstall / reinstall Affinity Designer

[DucksEverywhere]

Hello, I'm not sure if this is where I should be posting this, but here we go:

A while back I started getting notifications telling me my version of Affinity Designer was out of date. I currently have version 1.5.1.43. Upon trying to update, it encountered an error.

If I try to uninstall, it says "This installation package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package". I went into my C: drive and deleted all signs of "Affinity". When I try to install Affinity, I get "The older version of Affinity Designer cannot be removed. Contact your technical support group". Presumably, Affinity is still installed. How do I uninstall it completely now?

[Callum]

Hi DucksEveryone,

 

Welcome to the forums,

 

Please could you log into our website and download the installer for Affinity and attempt to install the app again? You should see the option to repair instead of install. Once you have repaired the app please could you try going to Control panel > Add and Remove programs and try uninstalling the app from there?

 

ThanKS

C

[DucksEverywhere]

Hello Callum, I'm Callum!

Thanks for the reply. I tried as you've said, but when I download the installer from the "Downloads and product keys" section of my account and run it, there is no option to repair Affinity. Have I got the correct installer? 

 

[Callum]

Hi Callum!,

 

Please could you try following through with the installation to see if that installs the latest version for you?

 

Thanks

Callum

[DucksEverywhere]

"The older version of Affinity Designer cannot be removed. Please contact your technical support group." - just as before 

[DucksEverywhere]

Is anyone able to help here? I really need this software for my work.

[DucksEverywhere]

UPDATE: I tried uninstalling Affinity Designer manually from the registry using this guide:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/247501/how-to-manually-remove-programs-from-the-add-remove-programs-list

 

Still not luck. It thinks there is still the older version installed.

[DucksEverywhere]

[DucksEverywhere]

Well, I must say this is extremely disappointing. I was hoping a moderator would actually talk to me about my problem, not good first impressions here.

[Callum]

Hi Ducks, 

 

I'm sorry you didn't get a response as you replied just before the office was closing on Friday so it looks as though your reply may have been missed. We also only have one member of staff working weekends so it may take a little longer for you to get a reply. Unfortunately there isn't much more I can suggest with this issue. I will pass this thread on to a member of our QA team on Monday when they are back in the office to see if they have any suggestions.

 

Thanks

C

[DucksEverywhere]

I see, sorry for pushing this issue it's just I need this for my work. Strange that such a large company like Serif only has one member of staff working weekends.

Thanks for the help so far though.

[Callum]

Please could you try running the attached .reg file to see if it resolves your issues?

 

 

 

RemoveDesignerFULL.reg

[DucksEverywhere]

Hello,

I've run the .reg file, and it everything seemed to go well, no error messages there.

After re-trying the "affinity-designer-1.5.3.exe" file I downloaded from your website, I still get the same error as before. I think there must be either remains of Affinity on my system, or the installer is just not co-operating. Do you know where I could start looking for any rogue affinity files? I've already searched the whole of my Program Files folder and Program Files x86.

[toltec]

If I was you, I would try running Piriform CCleaner to clean up your registry. I've found it very good at cleaning the registry of stuff left behind, and removing rubbish in general. I've used it on numerous computers and never had any issues. You do get the option to back-up the registry first. Which makes sense!

 

https://www.piriform.com

 

It's never a good idea to mess around with the registry using information from a 17 year old website. That link is for Windows 2000. I suspect you are using something newer and very different?

 

 

 

p.s. You might need to run it more than once. I think the free version only cleans up so many in one pass.

[DucksEverywhere]

Oh my god, haha! I didn't even see the part saying it was for Windows 2000. Yeah, I'm using Windows 10. I'll give CCleaner a shot and see if it works. Thanks for the suggestion!

[DucksEverywhere]

UPDATE: Ran CCleaner, nothing has changed. Same error message. Thinking I'm going to have to reinstall Windows. Should I reset and keep data, or clean install Windows? I have a Windows 8.1 key on the bottom of this laptop, how can I clean install using that if I need to?

[toltec]

I would not do that.. that sounds semi-suicidal 

 

Can you not try system restore or something?

 

 

 

 

[DucksEverywhere]

That sounds like a better idea. I still might reinstall Windows in the future though, as I've seen so many problems with iTunes in particular on this system (duplicate audio tracks on my families' 60GB+ song library), as well as other things.

I installed Affinity a while back, when I restore, I presume it reverts everything back to as it was when Affinity was installed? I mean, will I lose games and files I have downloaded since the install?

[toltec]

You should not lose any files but you do lose software. This depends on the restore point. 

 

The trouble is, you may not be able to go back far enough. On system 10 you don't seem to get many by default. So bloated.

 

 

[toltec]

If all else fails but it is a last resort.

 

Reset your PC

Resetting lets you choose whether to keep your files or remove them, and then reinstalls Windows. To get started, go to Settings > Update & security > Reset this PC > Get started and choose an option.

Note

If you can't open Settings, you can get to reset by restarting your PC from the sign-in screen. Press the Windows logo key Windows logo key  +L to get to the sign-in screen, then hold the Shift key down while you select Power  > Restart in the lower-right corner of the screen. After your PC restarts, select Troubleshoot > Reset this PC.

 

If you can't get to the sign-in screen, use a recovery drive or installation media to reset your PC.

 

 

You will have to re-install all your software. So it is really a LAST resort.

[Pšenda]

DucksEverywhere.

Look into the folder "c:\Users\YourAccount\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Affinity", and eventually clean her.

You may have a problem with permission access to the system folder "c:\Program Files" (UAC), and Windows make copies of files to VirtualStore.

[- S -]

13 hours ago, DucksEverywhere said:

I still might reinstall Windows in the future though, as I've seen so many problems with iTunes in particular on this system (duplicate audio tracks on my families' 60GB+ song library), as well as other things.

Should I reset and keep data, or clean install Windows?

If you clean install Windows and choose not to keep your data, just ensure you have backups of all your files, program installers, etc. on a separate drive first, because everything will be deleted.  Then it's a case of transferring all your files back on to the computer from the backup drive afterwards and re-installing any software.

It's worth being prepared for this type of scenario regardless because if you don't have backups and your computer is stolen or the harddrive suddenly fails then anything that was stored only on the machine would be lost.  Strictly speaking, more than one backup because when the PC is wiped, then you're back to only one copy of your data until you transfer it back on to the computer, which means you're back to hoping the backup drive doesn't fail.

It also gives you the opportunity to test out Schrodinger's backup theory - "The condition of any backup is unknown until a restore is attempted."  

 

14 hours ago, DucksEverywhere said:

I have a Windows 8.1 key on the bottom of this laptop, how can I clean install using that if I need to?

Looking at the 'close' buttons in the dialogue box screenshots you posted, it looks like it's no longer running Windows 8.1 and has been upgraded to Windows 10.  If you do a 'Fresh Start' (see below) you shouldn't need to enter a product key.  With computers that came with Windows 8.1 and 10, the product key is stored on a part of the computer (ACPI tables) that doesn't get deleted.  The activation servers should also know that the machine has a 'Windows 10 with Digital Entitlement' licence and automatically activate.

When installing Windows from a USB Stick you can enter the Windows product key when installing Windows, but if you press 'I don't have a product key' instead (if for example you have problems) it doesn't matter too much because it will activate when it boots into Windows and connects to the internet anyway.  If you don't enter a product key during installation though, you need to ensure you select the correct version of Windows to install (Pro or Home).

Windows 8.1 has 'Refresh' and 'Reset' options, but as your screenshots look like Windows 10 ones, the below link contains a Windows 10 step-by-step guide that will allow you to see what's involved with two 'Fresh Start' options on current build (15063 - Creators Update):

Link:
Fresh Start Windows 10

I don't use the above method as I prefer using the Windows Media Creation Tool to create a USB stick with the Windows installation media on it and boot from that.  This works better if for example you want to completely clean install upgrades on multiple machines, as you can do them all with the same USB stick.  Is also has the added advantage that if something were to go wrong, it enables you to just format the entire OS drive and start again as the installation media is stored on the USB stick rather than on the computer's drive itself.  It's not as user friendly though, but it's straight forward enough if you know your way around the computer's firmware, how to enable/disable secure boot, change boot order, etc..

 

[DucksEverywhere]

Hmmm... I'm not sure I can change the boot sequence very easily on this laptop. It was a custom laptop from PCSpecialist in 2014. If I do go with that option, I'd probably do a reset from within the Windows settings.

Any other suggestions to install Affinity? I checked the virtualstore folder, nothing related to Affinity in there unfortunately

[toltec]

I think the problem is in your PC somewhere. We had a lot of problems at work with updated Windows machines. The new ones with Win 10 installed are much less trouble. (Less for Windows 10, anyway). I prefer Win 7 and dread the day MS stop supporting it 

 

As an experiment, why not try and download a trial of Affinity Photo. Just to see what happens.

[emmrecs01]

Hi,

 

I'm coming a little late to this thread but I wonder whether either or both of the following might help:

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17588/fix-problems-that-block-programs-from-being-installed-or-removed is an official Microsoft page which claims to be able to help resolve problems like you are experiencing.
• Whenever I have been confronted by a problem of this nature, especially one where a program fails to uninstall properly, I have used Revo Uninstaller (the free version is available from https://www.revouninstaller.com/revo_uninstaller_free_download.html).  Personally, I use the paid-for Pro version since it adds the facility to monitor the installation of programs in order to ensure that any subsequent uninstallation runs successfully.  In the Pro version (I think the free version includes this) to achieve what you need you select the Forced Uninstall option, point it to the program by name and let it search all your computer for anything related to that program.  Nothing is deleted or changed until and unless you accept what the app lists as parts of the program.  It is always worth carefully checking everything it suggests should be deleted, especially any registry entries.

HTH

Jeff