Windows 11 Installation

1

I have an old version (19.6.51) which I happily used many years on a Windows 10 workstation. I have not used it for about 4 years, during which time the workstation was upgraded to Windows 11. The application still starts up and has valid configuration settings for the Homeowners Association books that I maintained.

I now would like to install a current version on a laptop for an entirely different project. I have downloaded and installed the current (25.9.11) version and it seems to load and execute as expected, but it is installing as a Windows 11 application with the usual Microsoft guard rails which limit my ability to install the application in a folder of my choice on a different drive. I do see that you have a capability to move it to a different drive, but that still leaves it as a Microsoft store-controlled application, which is not desirable. Are there means for causing a new install of a current version of Manager outside the Microsoft store paradigm in the way that I was able to accomplish that several years ago?

2

Hello @TCorbet,

As far as the install location, it has always been %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Manager

The installer now doesn’t give the user the option to change installation location, I have to admit that, however, Manager is portable so you can move the entire folder to the location of your choice and it should work just fine. You can test by copying first and see how it goes, before moving permanently.

I don’t know about Manager being controlled by Microsoft store. I say this because it isn’t published there.

So I wouldn’t worry about that.

3

Thanks for the quick turn-around. I am not a Windows guru, so I apologize for not staying up with the changes in standard installation processes over the many versions of the OS.

If you say there was never a means for installing anywhere except in the %USERPROFILE% path, I will accept that you certainly would be more apt to have that fact than I would. What I am trying to describe is what is happening via your Manager-x64.appx script. This results in the executables being installed in the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps directory which is, I believe, the same as any application downloaded and installed from the Windows Store and is decidedly not the Roaming sub-directory under the users AppData directory.

I believe the old installation procedures would have been carried out via some .msi script. Can you confirm that I ought to be able to simply move the Manager_25.9.11.2765_x64___0pfjnqdp216hg directory that got created in WindowsApps to some place such as D:\DownloadedApps and run Manager.exe in the app sub-directory and all the other paths and permissions will work as required?

1 Like
4

You can run the Desktop Manager application without installation.
Simply follow these steps:

  1. Download Manager-x64.Appx.
  2. Rename the file to Manager-x64.zip and extract it.
  3. Move the extracted app folder to your preferred location.
  4. Run manager.exe inside the folder.

The Desktop Manager should now run smoothly without requiring installation.

1 Like
5

Thank you for informing me that the .appx file is simply a renamed compressed archive file. Not knowing that, a couple of hours ago I performed these equivalent, but much messier steps to solve the problem.

  1. Xcopied the Manager_25.9.11.2765_x64___0pfjnqdp216hg directory which had been installed at C:\Program Files\WindowsApps to my preferred location not on the Windows %ROOT% volume.
  2. Uninstalled the app.
  3. Created a shortcut named ManagerIO targeting the relocated Manager.exe.
  4. Placed that shortcut file in the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs path.

The final step, as I am sure you know, is necessary to provide a non-hack way for ordinary users to be able to find the application in order to launch it. It will thereby show up in the expected list interrogated via Settings=>Apps=>Installed apps and if someone should use Start=>Search=>Manager, they will similarly be able to locate a clickable link to run the application. Perhaps my notes will help some other users who have a similar desire to reduce the load on the %ROOT% volume.

6

Turns out there are multiple ways to achive your goal.

But still, your initial remark is still valid, we lost the ability to choose installation location. I wouldn’t promote this topic just yet because I don’t know what @lubos has in mind.

7

This is how Microsoft has decided it to be with modern app install on Windows.

It’s still possible but it works differently.

1 Like
9

I don’t wish to be ungrateful, but this forum;s User Experience implementation is asking me, as the originator of this request for assistance to highlight whether or not some response has “answered my question,” and very much appreciating free software and community assistance, I should like to do that. I can say that because of the concern at the basis of this request and doing my due diligence in response to the various replies that were kindly provided, I do have a resolution and could gladly just close this ticket out. So anything past this comment, anyone can simply treat it as TLDR;

I am going to provide additional feedback because, in point of fact, none of the replies posted above, provides a fulsome suggestion concerning the currently implemented means for installing a fresh copy of Manager and I would strongly recommend that the owner of the GitHub repositories which one can access, post a complete explanation of what is going on. Since, however, I suspect that 99+% of the users of this fine software are accounting personnel, not software engineers, the place to post the explanation, and the manner in which the topics need to be addressed, will be most effective, if they appear on the web home that will be located somewhere in the top ten responses to an old-fashioned Google query for something similar to “Monitor bookkeeping software” or any of the AI-assisted upgrades to old-fashioned Google queries.

If the person attempting to do this has some prior experience with the product long-known as Monitor, they will be able to locate a valid URL string for www.manager.io the same as the one provided by Adildxi in the forum entry for this topic just above. What will not be located, however, is any menu option or link that will resolve to any public-facing ability to download the most current 64-bit release of Manager for Windows 11 either as a Microsoft .msi file/procedure or as portable .zip file.

At best – which is really the worst – a developer can find that Manager is partially being maintained on Github by Lubos Hasko out of Sydney, Australia. There was posted a Manager.zip file evidently freezing some version/release of about May, 2022. If you want the version of the executable code as committed today – September 19th – with a little bit of random searching, after being greeted by multiple HTTP 404 error codes, you can locate a Manager-x64.appx file – the one that you can more easily have downloaded from the www.manager.io web site. That is the one which, if clicked to install will result in the undesirable, forced home location on your C:\ drive. But, as Mabaega informed us last week, but is nowhere documented and is highly non-standard, you can open the .appx file with most archive tools (I still use 7-zip) and extract the contents to whatever directory on whatever volume you prefer.

After achieving that objective, however, you still need to perform some arcane operations to get the application software installed and to make it clearly visible as an application easily launched using the normal Windows gestures. That is precisely why I cannot answer the forum question as to which of these replies that I think would help other ordinary users solve the problems caused by the present method of delivering and setting up a set of Monitor accounts, and exactly why I really think a good technical writer needs to prepare helpful instructions.