Unusual destination folder for installation

[David Bolton]

Installed Inkscape 0.47 on Windows XP.

I expected it to install to "C:/Program Files/Inkscape/"

After it had finished installing I noticed it had installed to the same folder as the installer (see attachment). I had to uninstall, reinstall, specifically specify "C:/Program Files/Inkscape/" in order to get it in the location you would expect.

[Chris Morgan (chris.morgan)]

This is definitely not expected behaviour if you have never installed Inkscape before. The relevant lines of the installer:

!define PRODUCT_DIR_REGKEY "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\inkscape.exe"
...
InstallDir "$PROGRAMFILES\Inkscape"
InstallDirRegKey HKLM "${PRODUCT_DIR_REGKEY}" ""

The installation directory default goes like this; InstallDirRegKey is checked, if it exists, it is used. Then InstallDir is used. So, if the (default) key [as it appears in regedit] in 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\inkscape.exe' existed it would have used its location, otherwise C:\Program Files\Inkscape would be where it would go. (and it's not overwritten in any pre-directory-page code.)

Seeing as you're getting it there, I presume that you have you installed another version of Inkscape (development or official). If you were to run the installer again now (just to the directory selection page) you would (should) find that it would have C:\Program Files\Inkscape as its default once more.

[David Bolton (davidkbolton)]

I had installed and used version 0.46 frequently before installing 0.47.

At a couple points this year I did try a nightly build and opened it from the downloads folder. Maybe the nightly changed the (default) registry key when I opened it? I only used the nightlies for a couple days and subsequently deleted them afterward.

When I look at the (default) key in 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\inkscape.exe' it shows C:\Program Files\Inkscape so I guess it is correct now.