Where is Studio Installed from DIM? I can't find it.
DrowElfMorwen
Posts: 536
I'm coming back to DAZ Studio after years away. My last install was DAZ Studio 4.12. I used DIM today to install Studio 4.21 -- but where is it? I go to look at the Installed Files, and all that pops up is a blank window. Windows can't find it through search. My whole comptuer is acting like it was never installed. I'm so confused. How do I find it, and why is this so difficult? >_>
Also how do I install it *without* using DIM, because it's literally just confusing my entire Windows system. Add/Remove programs doesn't even list DAZ as being installed. This is quite frustrating.
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As a follow-up, I realized I need to (apparently) click this very not-intuitive arrow button within DIM to launch DAZ. However, nothing happens when I click it. Abolsutely nothing. I need a way to launch DAZ manually and not through this apprently-broken manager. Every time I open the manager, it keeps saying DAZ Studio 4.21 under "ready to install" -- what? It already installed, like three times! Please explain why this interface exists like this instead of just being a downloadable .exe like it used to be. This is immensively frustrating. Everything should be simple and easy; this is unncessarily complicated and is causing a litany of issues. I jsut want to launch DAZ from my desktop or Start Menu without going through DIM--or at least launch it at all.
Well, I would advise that you probably do want to use DIM since Daz Connect causes more issues than DIM does. When Daz Studio is installed properly via DIM then you can launch it like any other regular application. Uninstall would still be done via DIM so not showing up under installed apps is expected.
But to answer your queries, if Daz Studio remains in ready to install then it sounds like DIM does not have permission to install it. Does the install button switch to Retry after a few seconds? There is a little icon in the top right and if you click that there should be two log options - open those and see if either provides more information.
The other explanation I can think of is that either your install location or manifest file location is under the influence of that demon-child that is OneDrive. Therefore, it could be that evil beast that is deleting things from your hard-drive after DIM has saved them.
If you go to the settings for DIM it will specify where applications, manifest files (the files that record what is installed) and your asset library will be. Make sure those are not in any of the places that OneDrive can screw up.
So I don't use DAZ Connect and never have. It's why I didn't mention it in my post. This really should just be a simple -- download the program, install the program. Manually.
I still can't find it to open it. DIM gives no indication it didn't install. If I go to Basic Settings, under 64-Bit Software Base path, it lists a path... but when I open that folder, it's my DAZ content folder, and I don't see the program itself *anywhere*. I see a ton of content it installed, like Genesis 9 for example, but not DAZ itself. I can only open my oldest version of the program which is DAZ 4.11. (4.12 has seemingly disappeared now, great!)
Also, I don't know what OneDrive is, so I'm assuming I don't use it.
As for looking at the log--I'm not used to looking at these things--but I found a TON of lines that all say the same thing:
2023-09-19 15:07:23.037 [WARNING] :: Open Install Manifest Failed - The file could not be opened: C:/Users/Public/Documents/DAZ 3D/InstallManager/ManifestFiles/
2023-09-19 15:07:23.572 [WARNING] :: Open Install Manifest Failed - The file could not be opened: C:/Users/Public/Documents/DAZ 3D/InstallManager/ManifestFiles/
Again it's telling me that DAZ Studio is "Ready to Be Installed". Nothing *apparently* goes amiss when I click this, except of course I go to open the program and nothing happens.
Is there really no way to just manually install it?
OK, that log suggests that the ManifestFiles folder is missing (or DIM does not have permission to access it) which means that DIM is going to forget what it has installed and so there will be issues.
Daz Studio is not content and so should not be installed alongisde the Genesis models etc so that part is odd.
There is a self-downloadable executable somewhere although I don't remember where it is :/
EDIT: It's here - https://www.daz3d.com/downloader/customer/files#prod_13176 - use the corresponding manual zip for your OS
Thanks to Catherine3678ab for posting this an another thread earlier.
Are you gtting a UAC propmpt, asking if DazDIMHelper should be allowed to make chnages to the computer? If not it is likely your security settings/software are not allowing the isntallation to start. If this is a new isntallation of Windows? Do other (non-Microsoft store) installers work? What security software are you using?
If you installed Windows using an online account 9which Windows really wants you to do) then your documents have almost certainly been moved to onedrive without a by-your-leave (even if you have only the default 2GB space) - that may well be an issue with content but I don't think it would directly affect the application since that isn't going to your personal documents folder.
Ohhh, thank you, THANK YOU!! I've been trying this for hours and now I can finally just install it XD
I'm not sure what's going on with my Manifest... thing. But I've switched computers over the years, moved my content manaully, etc, so I'm sure I'm bound to run into problems. I'm just glad I can install the program itself as usual. Thank you!!!!
And.. I'm getting a problem:
https://gyazo.com/ca7a786cb7b8707b0c56cba614c27c9d ;
Yikes! I don't have DAZ running at all, nothing in my task manager is running, either (related to DAZ). How do I get around this error?
Are you able to reboot the machine? Sometimes an orphaned process will get stuck in a running state so might not show up there but still register as not shut down.
That's the default directory, DIM should create it. Check your virus protection software; on Windows if the supplied "Windows Defender" has "Ransomware" protection turned on you need to allow DIM to bypass it. On Mac and with other non-Microsoft security software I don't know where the setting would be but for certain Windows Defender requires DIM to be explicitly enabled if it is providing ransomware protection.
That might give the UAC message (on Windows) that @Richard referred to, but only if you did actually copy over the "InstallManager" directory; that's where the downloaded .zip archives are (in "Downloads") but the "Manifest Files directory, full of things that are manifestly files and all end in ".dsx", is too. It's difficult to copy all this stuff; the .zip files are trivially easy to copy and safe, but the rest of it ("Manifest Files" and the actual root directories where contents is installed, "CMS" directories) can be tricky.
If you have existing downloaded DAZ/Tafi content (as .zip files) then you can copy those back into a new, clean, installation and DIM should find them again; i.e. DIM should not want to re-down-load unless the .zip is out of date. DAZ provides a checksum for the up-to-date .zip which DIM checks if the file seems out-of-date (or something like that.)
The simplest thing and, unless you have a terabit internet connection, pretty much as fast as anything else is to archive the downloaded .zips, clean everything out, reinstall DIM then copy the archived .zips back into the "Downloads" directory that it creates. At this point you can just re-install everything from scratch. If it isn't fast your renders will be really slow :-)
I shut down my computer, turned it back on, and went to install the .exe ... only to run into the same error again :( Now I'm really at a loss!!
Ahh, that sucks :( Daz Studio does not have any "boot at startup" components that I am aware of and so the restart should have cleared anything that was stuck. There might be a peculiarity with the stand-alone installer so hopefully someone else who has used that can assist? I've never installed Daz directly so have no experience with the issues involved there.
The file on the page also says, if choosing the manual options, "Dowmload Zip." But it doesn't download a zip, it downloads an .exe. I hope it's not the wrong file.
I guess for now I'll stick with using DAZ 4.11 (and I can't figure out why my 4.12 is suddenly MIA!) and hope it works fine with all the new content.
The .zip reference is generic, a few things do come as executable installers.
Even after I restarted my computer, every time I run the .exe to install it, it keeps saying shut down other instances of DAZ Studio. Nothing else is open. Do you know why this might be, please?
Sorry, no.
My computer still won't let me install DAZ Studio. Version 4.12 has disappeared. I'm stuck on 4.11 ..... I keep getting the error, "to continue installation, daz studio needs to be shut down" even when NOTHING is running. Even when I shut down and restart my computer. And I can't get that little error/window to go away unless I end it in Task Manager, which is a bad design.
Someone please help! :(
If you look in Task Manager do you see any processes related to Daz Studio?
I definitely looked and saw nothing starting with DAZ -- but if there is something *else* I should be looking for, I don't know it.
In Task Manager do you have More Details enabled, and are you checking the list of background tasks as well as the main applications?
Today I tried to install it again, and it worked--I didn't change anything, but I'm glad it worked.