#1

Use case or problem

It isn’t obvious that the executable downloaded from https://obsidian.md/ is an installer rather than a portable app. As of 0.11.0, the Obsidian executable downloaded via the Get Obsidian for Windows button installs itself into the AppData folder on Windows automatically without informing users of the installation location or giving them a way to back out should they not want to continue. This has the potential to make the onboarding process for some users confusing or unfavourable.

This is Windows centric, but may be applicable to other operating systems. I suspect the macOS install process involves manually dragging the app into the Applications folder, as per usual, making the install process on Mac more transparent.

Proposed solution

A couple of proposed solutions:

  • Short-term: add ‘Installer’ to the executable name. E.g. ‘Obsidian.0.11.0.Installer.exe’
  • Long-term: include a setup confirmation window in the installation process that let’s users know what’s going on, and lets them cancel if they wish to. E.g.:

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Current workaround (optional)

Related feature requests (optional)

8 Likes
#2

Absolutely, this “eat or die” approach is not only extremely rude but also trouble for remotely administered workstations or just ppl who want to have control of what and where (which drive, folder, …) something is installed. This is not nice!

4 Likes
#3

I’m definitely going to second this - I had zero knowledge that the website Obsidian.0.12.15.exe was going to do an immediate install - its not uncommon for people to have two harddrives - a secondary drive for programs/apps, and a significantly smaller OS-only drive (C:).

If every program took this approach of installation to %APPDATA%, the OS drive would quickly be consumed.

Please at least add an args[] parameter for command-line installation:

obsidian.0.12.15.exe --install-path D:\Apps\Obsidian

2 Likes
#4

Guys I just installed 0.12.19, or rather was forced to, as the downloaded .exe installed itself without asking onto my system drive (small hard disk).
As stated beginning of this year, this is a no-go behaviour -
don´t get me wrong, I love what you´re doing, but this is like stepping into someone´s house without asking and lying into their bed, very unpolite :wink:

1 Like
#5

Dear developers, you lost it at the very first step… Installation on Windows :confused:

I agree with all opinions above.

I uninstalled obsidian immediately after this unacceptable behaviour and will not use until you make requested changes.

#6

But over the past few months，Now the latest version is 0.13.14，When I installed it，Software is still automatically installed to the C://users/aa/AppData/

This prevents me from using obsidian，I can only use other notes instead。

#7

Are there any updates on this? I am unable to install Obsidian since I need to be able to choose the installation directory.