UPDATED: NOTICE: Changes Coming to Studio Installer

[tmccombie]

UPDATE: As of Studio 9.10, the appxbundle for offline installs and the Microsoft Store version of Vuforia Studio are now available. See the following Help Center topics for more information:

• Install Vuforia Studio on Windows
• Install Vuforia Studio in Closed Network Environments

We encourage users to use the new installers that are now available, as the legacy installers will no longer be available on the PTC Software Download page with the next release of Vuforia Studio.

We are planning to introduce a new and improved way to install and upgrade Vuforia Studio for Windows in early 2023. This change will allow Vuforia Studio to be deployed, installed, and updated via the Microsoft Store. An appxbundle will also be available on the PTC Software Downloads page to be used for SCCM deployments, command line, or offline installations. To understand how this change might impact you, see the below scenarios:

Please reply to this post with any questions or concerns on this upcoming change. Additional information will be provided as we get closer to launching the new installer. 

[pjahn]

Will this change also bring an improvement regarding the location of projects and settings? Currently - in times of OneDrive and similar - projects are stored in the user profile. This is not always useful.

Will there be a way for the user to configure the location for projects? Will there be a new storage location for settings?

[AmberWright]

Hello @pjahn , 

No this will not allow the location of the projects to be configurable. The project files will continue to live in the Documents/VuforiaStudio location. I will take this down as a request for a future change to be considered. Thank you as well to the two people who gave Kudos!

[whity]

Will the installed version of Studio be controllable? It would be really good, if a downgrade was possible at any time. We ran into a couple of situations having a product presentation, but the newest updated brought unexpected issues which lead us to using videos instead of live a presentation. 

[AmberWright]

Hi @whity , yes the installed version of Studio will be controllable. The appxbundle on the PTC Software Downloads page will now not just install the latest, but will install the version that is assigned to it. The MS Store will always install the latest. If you need to downgrade, you will need to completely uninstall Studio, grab the desired appxbundle version from the PTC Software Downloads page, and then install that version. 

[VladimirRosu]

I am in the process of installing Vuforia Studio from Microsoft Store, but I observed I can perform this operation only if I click the link from the support page.

I expected a bit to be able to search "vuforia studio" and see it popping up in the search results, but I did not.

Is this lack of appearing in search results intended, or a bug (maybe not set to appear in my region?)

[xinli]

The intent is for the app not to be searchable in the app store - that was a product management decision.

[VladimirRosu]

Clear and thank you @xinli .

[PhilLindberg]

A quick follow-up on this topic: I'll note that my site does *NOT* allow access to the Microsoft Store for our Windows systems, due to a variety of security concerns. At the moment, I am told that Vuforia Studio users at my site will each need to apply for their own security exception in order to install Vuforia Studio. I share this mostly to remind those making product decisions that mechanisms like the Microsoft Store don't work well for all users.

[whity]

same here

[VladimirRosu]

@PhilLindberg  and @whity , would it be possible to elaborate a bit more on your issues?

It feels for me that your situations is one of the ones listed in the first post, where you can download the appxbundle (let's call it the new installer) from the PTC Software Download page directly, without online access to Microsoft Store .

However, I am not sure if when you say "my site does not allow acccess to the Microsoft Store" if that means that you also can not use the appxbundle at all (eg: running the appxbundle just does not result in any window) or you just don't have online access to the library of apps within the Microsoft Store (but the appxbundle should run successfully).

[AmberWright]

If your site does not allow installation from the Microsoft Store, then you can use the appxbundle from the PTC Software Downloads page. If your applications are managed by an enterprise IT, they can use the appxbundle with SCCM to manage the installs and updates. 

[PhilLindberg]

 @VladimirRosu and @AmberWright - thanks for the clarification! My apologies, I was under the impression that the MS Store announcement also applied to the appxbundle (yes, we can call it the "new installer"). It comes with a few minor disadvantages, but I believe it will work fine for our needs. Thanks for your help!

[AmberWright]

Great to hear, thank you for letting us know!

[JG_8568288]

I caused an antivirus alert in our company because of this file from the appx-bundle:

C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\9CAFC431.26312A8ACB347_9.105801.0_x64_tv5290srnzce0\VFS\Common AppData\VuforiaStudio\node_modules\es5-ext\_postinstall.js

We might need to configure an exception. 

But anyways; glad to have a workaround to the appstore. 

[Martini3119]

Hi there!

Works great in my opinion! I have a few questions I could use some help with to make it even better.

1. How can I add the app to Intune and/or the company portal? If I try to add it using the Microsoft Store feature, it does not work.
2. Is it possible to add the app to the Microsoft Store user library just as all other apps are automatically added after installation?
3. Where can I find this directory "...\node_modules\@ptc\ves-ar-extension\src\ar\src\phone\resources\Default" in the new app? I add default assets here for company branding, like logos, banners, icons, button designs and a lot of other stuff, so that every new project is created with all these assets available in an instant. I have done the same for several customers.

Many thanks in advance.

With kind regards,

Martini3119