Always install TouchDesigner to versioned folder?

General TouchDesigner Discussion
,
1

I find myself now with like 5 different TD installs because I’m maintaining old projects/deployments.

On installation in Windows, we install to C://Program Files/Derivative/Touchdesigner/ and only when there are multiple parallel builds does the install folder get a suffix .2023.12600.

Is there a way to force this suffix even if we’re installing Touchdesigner for the first time?

I’m trying to handle versions and locate the right one to a specific TOE/project, and always have to make an edge case of "what if all you have is an unversioned install folder name.

Is there another way to locate touchdesigner.exe via version/build in Windows?

3

Ive used this since many years since I also needed to maintain many projects over many td versions. - it’s superhandy

4

There’s also a new tool by Daniel Molnar based off Lucas’ original tool:

1 Like
5

+1 ( just for general sanities sake)

6

These are great links but besides the point of my core question about the installer, I’ll check them out!

7

This did help me identify another way than filesystem lookups for identifying installed versions, via Windows Registry.

8

Hi @cem_futuretense

we’ll add that as an option to the installer. The “TouchDesigner” path is intended to simplify updates on systems where only a single install of TouchDesigner is running and eventual startup scripts depend on a fixed filepath.

cheers
Markus

1 Like
9

Thanks Markus, I see both sides of it here!

10

For the people trying to make launch scripts here, this is my PowerShell version of what TD-Launcher-Plus does:

function Get-TdInstallsViaRegistryLookup {

    $tdDict = @{}
    $versions = @()
    $paths = @{}

    # -- Primary: HKLM path-based lookup --------------------------------
    $hklmPath = "HKLM:SOFTWARE\Derivative\TouchDesigner"
    if (Test-Path $hklmPath) {
        $values = Get-ItemProperty $hklmPath
        foreach ($name in $values.PSObject.Properties.Name) {
            $value = $values.$name
            if ($name -like 'Path*') {
                # write-Info "Found registry path entry: $name = $value"
                $paths[$name] = $value
            }
            elseif ($name -match '^\d{4}\.\d+$') {
                # Write-Info "Found registry version entry: $name = $value"
                $versions += $name
            }
        }

        foreach ($version in $versions) {
            $installPath = $null
            foreach ($pathName in $paths.Keys) {
                $pathValue = $paths[$pathName]
                if ($pathValue -like "*$version*") {
                    $installPath = $pathValue
                    break
                }
            }
            if ($installPath) {
                $tdDict[$version] = $installPath
            }
        }
    }

    # -- Fallback: HKCR file-association lookup for unmatched versions ---
    $resolvedVersions = $tdDict.Keys
    $unmatchedVersions = $versions | Where-Object { $resolvedVersions -notcontains $_ }
    foreach ($version in $unmatchedVersions) {
        # $hkcrKeyPath = "HKCR:TouchDesigner.$version\shell\open\command" # Not in PSDrive
        $hkcrKeyPath = "Registry::HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\TouchDesigner.$version\shell\open\command"
        if (Test-Path $hkcrKeyPath) {
            # Write-Info "Found HKCR key for version ${version}: $($hkcrKey.PSPath)"
            $commandVal = (Get-ItemProperty -Path $hkcrKeyPath | Select-Object -ExpandProperty '(default)' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
            if ($commandVal -and $commandVal -match '"([^"]+)"') {
                $exePath = $Matches[1]
                if (Test-Path $exePath) {
                    $installPath = Split-Path (Split-Path $exePath) -Parent
                    $tdDict[$version] = $installPath
                }
            }
        }
    }

    # Sort dictionary by version keys alphabetically
    $tdSortedDict = [ordered]@{}
    foreach ($key in $tdDict.Keys | Sort-Object) {
        $tdSortedDict[$key] = $tdDict[$key]
    }
    return $tdSortedDict
}

Creates a Dictionary of builds vs install paths.

{
  "2023.12600": "C:\Program Files\Derivative\TouchDesigner.2023.12600",
  ...
}