Hoping I can get help with fixing an issue I have. The issue being that Krita always launches as if it’s a fresh install.
None of the configurations or the recent images I open are stored. Even the window size I set it to isn’t saved.
What I’ve found is that it saves these as expected only if I run the app in administrator mode.
For some reason, the permissions are installed as administrator. I’ve got it working for a bit after setting the permission in windows for all the users (all users in ‘PCname/users’ and my Windows account) and for some files i found in %localappdata% such as kritarc since setting the owner for the executable to the user account I’m using doesn’t fix it.
I really want to get Krita working but I can’t get up to speed since the application reverts back to the start (bcus it’s not saving my preferences/recents). I even spent a whole morning just toggling the windows ink setting for my tablet when I was trying out OTD.
I don’t really use those and the related files for Krita aren’t stored in any folder that would sync for those types of services. Is there anything I should check just in case?
I suspected it’s a permission issue since it only appears to work as expected when using Administrator
Because Krita can not gain elevated rights by itself, and this only happens when Krita was installed in admin-mode, at least for my knowledge, it must have been installed using admin rights.
That seldom happens accidentally using Windows Explorer as file manager, because you can not run it (easily) in permanent admin mode. But if you use a different file manager and that was started in admin mode, this can be overlooked easily. Or you installed Krita for whatever reason using the “Run as Administrator” (context menu) command, or maybe via Shell or PowerShell in admin mode.
So, it seems you have to uninstall Krita completely, including all the files carrying krita in their name that you will find at the very end of %LOCALAPPDATA% as well as the folder krita found in %LOCALAPPDATA%, and I would also delete Krita’s resource folder found at %APPDATA%\krita\ or via the menu ‘‘Settings’’ >> ‘‘Manage Resources…’’ >> ‘‘Open Resource Folder’’.
After that “deletion party”, I would run a registry cleaning app* or one of these uninstaller applications that claim to be able to clean the registry from the remnants of an uninstalled software.
Michelist
*To be honest, I would do it manually, because I know what can be deleted and what not. Yes, I know that these cleaning apps are much better than twenty years ago, but I don’t trust them.
Thanks for your reply. I’ve re-installed multiple times and have deleted the related files in %localappdata%. Also tried assigning the permissions to my account instead of administrator as mentioned earlier.
Problem with reinstalling is that, by default, UAC is triggered and for some reason it installs it as Administrator. I dont have this issue when installing other applications (app is installed for my default user/windows acc).
From where did you download your copy of Krita? I’m asking because this sounds really strange to me:
Krita does not trigger UAC, I am so bold as to say never. But you can avoid this by using the portable version of Krita, because it needs no installation. Just unzip it to a folder for which you have read and write permissions, enter the unzipped folder and use the link krita.lnk to start Krita.
Michelist
Add/Edit: If anyone is wondering about my wording, for instance, because the person is not familiar with Windows:
What I may have worded misleadingly with the user account control is that Windows of course asks if the Krita installer is allowed to install Krita, as it is common today with any installation of whatever, but no higher (admin) rights are required and requested to be able to do a normal installation of Krita.
I downloaded it from here Download | Krita
The UAC trigger could be that for some reason my current user account doesn’t have permission to some directories that Krita needs. Hopefully the portable version only reads/writes files it needs to run within the portable package then that would definitely solve this for now.
Thank you for the suggestion I’ll try it out~
What type of Windows installation are you using? Is it a PC from your employer, school, university, etc. that has restrictions set up by that organization’s IT department, such as policies about where you can write and where your write permissions are revoked?
First off, never use an account with admin rights for normal work on Windows, as this can be a security risk. Admin account should be used only for well… administrative tasks - and this means things a normal user (and thus the apps the user is running) can’t (and shouldn’t) do.
Secondly, when logged in as normal user, each and every installer that writes to the Windows ‘Programs’ folder, will ask for admin permissions, e.g. password or Windows Hello - and Krita installer does that too of course! ‘Programs’ is protected for a reason, and a normal user cannot write to that folder.
Thirdly, installers are programmed differently: the better ones will ask whether to install for all users or just the current one. Most will just do one or the other without asking.
Whenever available, I use portable versions. Krita is… let’s say half portable, as it will write to AppData Local and Roaming of the current user. So if you’re using multiple portable versions, they will share settings and resources among them (as well as with installed Krita).
@ssstan does the path under Settings > Configure Krita… > General > Resources contain your admin account name or your normal user name?
I guess you mean “User Account Control” (“Benutzerkontensteuerung”)?
I agree with all points made here. That’s why it was surprising when I checked the ownership and permission for krita.exe, it was for the admin account.
As for the path in %appdata%/Roaming/krita, it contains my regular user name.
It’s just a personal machine I built running Windows 11 Pro.