Hi @dae! Really honored to be able to talk with the man himself
I’ve been thinking about how to approach this subject since you last posted. As a result, I’ve performed a number of controlled reinstallations of Anki, the details of which I reproduce in this message.
In my humble opinion, I think the problem lies within the path I am using, particularly with the “Iván” part. Notice the “á” symbol? That symbol has been problematic for me in the past. The thing is, CMD’s charset handling is not always predictable, and the “á” symbol tends to be substituted for something else, say “¬”. When that happens, some files can’t be found/read/written, maybe resulting in the “weird look” problem. Perhaps the line “%~dp0” in anki-console.bat? (NOTE: I’ve tried to execute that particular line and it returns the path correctly, “C:\Users\Iván\AppData\Local\Programs\Anki”, but maybe, just maybe…)
That said, I hope you can track down whatever issue this is, you know Anki better than anyone. I am entirely happy to install Anki elsewhere and continue studying, so no hurries from this side. Also, should it be of any help, I am down for additional testing. Maybe a Windows Registry export? A CRC listing of the installed files?
EDIT: just performed 2 additional tests…
- Install @ C:\Users\Iván\AppData\Local\Programs\Anki. Create another desktop icon. Same problem, looks weird.
- Install @ C:\Users\Iván\AppData\Local\Programs\Anki. Copy contents to C:\Temp. Execute via dbl-click anki.exe. Works flawlessly. So, probably not related to the files themselves, but rather to the chosen path? Maybe it’s the “á” symbol?
AV: off (Avast, everything offline).
Installation: dbl-click on anki-2.1.64-windows-qt6.exe file (did not explicitly invoke local admin privileges, but the account is part of the local admin group).
Path: C:\Users\Iván\AppData\Local\Programs\Anki
Content: 1.079 files, 125 folders.
Size: 490 MB (513.851.873 bytes).
Size on disk: 491 MB (515.764.224 bytes).
Execution: dbl-click on Anki desktop icon.
Result: looks weird (e.g. check marks not showing, menus have a different style…).
Next try:
AV: off (Avast, everything offline).
Installation: dbl-click on anki-2.1.64-windows-qt6.exe file (did not explicitly invoke local admin privileges, but the account is part of the local admin group).
Path: C:\Users\Ivan\AppData\Local\Programs\Anki
Result: error dialog box (error opening file for writing: C:\Users\Ivan\AppData\Local\Programs\Anki\anki.console.bat. Click Retry to try again, or Cancel to stop the installation).
Result: could not install.
Next try:
AV: off (Avast, everything offline).
Installation: right click on anki-2.1.64-windows-qt6.exe, execute as admin (local admin).
Path: C:\Users\Ivan\AppData\Local\Programs\Anki
Content: 1.070 files, 121 folders.
Size: 489 MB (513.681.932 bytes).
Size on disk: 491 MB (515.579.904 bytes).
Execution: dbl-click on Anki desktop icon.
Result: everything works flawlessly, app is ready to go and looks beautiful.
Kindly,
Iván