Frequently I have found myself repeatedly offering the same advice to other users struggling to get their offered-title-of-the-day installation working correctly. I thought I would join with others posting here in the forums and create yet another entry on this popular topic!
Here are my tips for successful installations, and others for dealing with some GOTD offers which, after installation, display with really tiny fonts, menu items, etc., on high-DPI displays:
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You may have had no trouble at all in the past installing GiveawayOfTheDay-offered titles, then something like a recent Windows update may have changed your installation experience even if your antivirus or other software has apparently not changed (with Windows things seem to always be in a state of flux!).
Many advise temporarily deactivating your anti-virus protection program for the duration of the installation. (While this may indeed prove necessary for some people's systems, fortunately I have never needed to do so -- having previously used Norton, MacAfee, Kaspersky, AVG, Avast, I am now running Windows Defender and free of the constant nagware for extra features!)
I will caution that you should carefully "vet"/screen/scan any other Internet-downloaded software (coming from sources other than the carefully pre-screened GOTD offers) with your antivirus tools; perform a search of the Internet for any reported problem alerts; and/or upload the installer file(s) to a service like VirusTotal.com to help ensure there is no malware/spyware/worm/"bot"/adware/etc. payload before installing when using these steps. To install software containing malware using the "Run as administrator" permission could really wreck your machine and/or result in identity or financial theft!
Before disabling your anti-virus product, try the following things to see if they help (as presented on my USA-English Windows installation -- things may be presented differently in your language?). Hopefully routinely following these simple steps will make your GOTD installations work successfully/reliably again:
1) Try "unblocking" the downloaded file if "blocked" (which is typical for most files downloaded from elsewhere) before extracting/copying the Setup.exe, Readme.txt, and/or other files for installation -- it may help:
After downloading/saving the GOTD file, right-click on it (whatever type it is, ZIP, EXE, etc.) and select "Properties". (Do this even if the file is instead downloaded from the developer's site as a result of clicking on a link in a registration e-mail which some titles require.)
In the Properties window that appears, on the "General" tab, at the bottom below "Attributes" you frequently will also see the item "Security" (for files I download from this website it is almost always present). If you do see it there it will say "This file came from another computer and might be blocked to help protect this computer." (This may well be a source of your anti-virus program's alert, and for the well-intentioned but possibly-misguided advice to disable it.)
Simply click to place a checkmark in the box "Unblock", then click the "Apply" button -- you will see that the warning text will disappear -- then the "OK" button (next time you can simply click the OK button if you prefer). Again, it should be safe to do so since all daily featured titles from GOTD are carefully screened for malware before they are offered as file downloads to the public.
2) SHORT VERSION: For a more reliable installation experience, unpack/copy all the installer and Readme.txt files (from within the usual downloaded ZIP file) into an empty folder at the root of your C: drive, say, a newly created folder named "C:\INSTALL" or "C:\GOTD" or "C:\TEMP" -- your choice. (This is good practice for installing any software application.)
LONG VERSION: Some application software titles will install better when the installer (or "setup" file) is launched from your C: drive, and especially from within a top-level (or "root" level) folder. This ensures that there should be no issues with what is known as "folder depth" or "path length" where the reference info as to where a file is located in any sub-folder structure gets so long that the system cannot handle it, and so the installation fails.
A "scratch" folder is a file folder that is set up for occasional use. It gets its name from a "scratch pad" on which you might doodle down an idea or play with some numbers to get an answer before drawing/writing your formal answer elsewhere. The Windows system has many of these scattered all over the place for its own purposes (and which has given rise to the birth of an entire class of "utility" software -- such as Piriform's CCleaner "Crap Cleaner" -- to reduce the performance-robbing "clutter").
If you don't already have such a mostly-empty "scratch" folder set up for YOUR own purposes at the root of your C: drive (useful for, say, software installations!), create one and name it anything you like.
For instance, if there is not already a mostly-empty folder C:\Temp, make one. Or you could name it INSTALL (C:\INSTALL) -- it is entirely your choice for an easy-to-remember name. Try not to use a folder that already has a lot of unfamiliar or cryptic files within which would indicate something on the system is already using it.
Anyway, create (or choose) such a directory and copy all the installer/setup file(s) (or contents of the downloaded ZIP file) into it, then run the installation from that directory (following the directions in the Readme file).
Afterwards, when you are satisfied that the software works OK, you can easily find, select and delete those temporary installation files from your "scratch" directory to keep it cleaned up for next time.
3) SHORT VERSION: I have had consistent success with these GOTD software titles by running/launching the installer file (typically Setup.exe) as an "Administrator" which temporarily lowers protections.
To do so, right-click on the installer file, then select "Run as adminstrator". Proceed with the installation (but first see next step).
LONG VERSION: You may find it necessary to right-click on the setup file and choose to "Run as adminstrator". When an installer is launched this way it grants access permissions/privileges to the system to relax some security rules that might be preventing the installation from proceeding normally.
Again, featured titles offered by GOTD are carefully screened for malware and should be considered safe for granting such permissions (although there still may be undesirable "nagware", "ad-ware", promotional material, possibly "report-back-ware" perceived as spyware, etc., that the title might include as part of the installation -- but the presence of such fluff is what the GOTD user community is good at discovering!).
IMPORTANT: as with suggestions to "temporarily disable" your anti-virus/anti-malware protection during installations, similarly you should NOT get in a habit of using "Run as administrator" when installing just any old random software you download from the Internet -- that would be a really easy way to get infected with malware!
4) After the installation is complete, there is often a checkbox (pre-checked) with the offer to go ahead and "launch" the software application. At this point the installer file is still running and will continue to run if the application also begins running.
Although this is intended as a convenience, I usually UN-check this "convenience-launch" box before proceeding for the following reason:
If the above 3rd step was followed to install the new software (and you then chose the "convenience" launch) you would continue to be temporarily running as an "Administrator" when the new application appeared on screen.
Any registration info you then enter may be tied to the temporarily-enabled "Adminstrator" account.
Later, when you next re-launch the application as an "ordinary user" you may discover that it is no longer registered, and it may be too late to try and register again under the GOTD registration/activation rules! I believe this may be source of some posted complaints.
I prefer to finish the installation (including the typical return to the GOTD website for the "thank you", "please share" window, or to the developer's website for a post-install discount-buy offer, etc.) without launching the new software. Simply uncheck the "launch/run" box and complete the installation.
Then, when the installer (and any other stuff it may have launched in turn) has been exited (which ends the temporary "Adminstrator" status), I launch the new software as an ordinary user from any of its proper icons in the traditional way: in the Start menu, QuickLaunch icon or from the desktop icon, etc. I then register/activate and have had no problems afterwards.
5) If the installation seems to proceed without error, yet the application still will not launch or work correctly, try restarting your system. Often that finalizes the installation and it will begin working correctly.
6) Sometimes (but not always) it works to download the software direct from the developer's website, then using the GOTD activation program or registration key code; but do try the intended GOTD download first.
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If none of these general "tips" work for you (and I've likely missed including a few others -- sorry!), and no other suggestions in the GOTD comments have helped, it's probably time to give up and uninstall any non-working titles. I suggest using a good, free, safe, reliable uninstaller (like Revo Uninstaller) to ensure most of the left-behind traces are removed.
Following these steps I've rarely been unable to successfully install a GOTD offer. That doesn't mean the software will perform without issues -- some newly-released versions/editions of titles simply are "not ready for prime-time" and we GOTD users are apparently their test-bed experimental guinea pigs!
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Also, in "Options" or "Preferences" be sure to look for and disable any automatic update setting that would likely result in later deactivation/unregistering actions.
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Some software application programs are not yet written with code capable of being high-DPI aware, and the tiny/small fonts/windows/objects will display incorrectly/improperly on higher-resolution so-called 4K video display monitors.
To help deal with these installation issues, Windows 10 has the ability to help deal with this "Compatibility" problem as follows:
On my 3840x2160 pixel laptop a few aspects of many offered GOTD titles appeared very tiny, while with others the "objects" in the application's window (menus, buttons, info blocks, column headers, etc.) sometimes appear jumbled on top of each other to the point of not seeing everything as intended.
This matter can often be easily solved by right-clicking on one of the icons used to launch the application; then
select "Properties";
select the "Compatibility" tab;
under "Settings" click to place a checkmark in the box for "Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:";
from the little drop-down menu just below, select "System" (or later re-try "System (Enhanced)" -- whichever ends up working better for your system);
click the "OK" button (or "Apply" then "OK" if you prefer -- it should not matter);
...and re-launch -- it should display much better.
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To GOTD and its generous title developers: Thanks for this wonderful web site -- I've been using it for years to discover many useful applications, and also to sometimes learn new skills from the other user-commenters!
