How to Fix Installation Problems

Bloom Bloom How To
1

By far, the most common cause of problems during install is anti-virus programs. You might expect that these programs work by recognizing viruses. In fact, these days some anti-malware programs take a “guilty until proven innocent” approach, and since Bloom is a relatively rare program, it is normally unknown to the anti-malware companies.

First Things to Try

1 Check Windows Defender “Controlled Access”

Symptom: you get a message from Bloom about “Controlled Access” or you see something like

Bloom was unable to update this file (somewhere)\settingsCollectionStyles.css

Solution: check your Windows Defender settings. A Windows update around October 2017 added a feature which prevents Bloom from being able to write its own files, if the collection folder is in a “Controlled Folder”. Your “Documents” folder is one such “Controlled Folder”, and by default, that is where Bloom collections live. You have two options:

Option 1:

Turn off this setting, which can be accessed this way:

  1. Press Start Key
  2. Type defender. That should select “Windows Defender Settings”. Press .
  3. In Windows Defender, go to
  4. Virus and Thread Protect: Virus & threat protection settings: Controlled folder access
  5. Turn that off.
  6. Restart your computer.

By turning this off, you will be losing the “ransomware” protection that this feature provides.

Option 2:

You can also move your Bloom collection to somewhere that is not a “Controlled Folder”. One you have moved it, double click on the “.bloomCollection” file in the root of your collection folder. After the first time, Bloom will remember where it is.

Option 3:

There is an option to “Allow an app through Controlled folder access”. You can point this to the Bloom executable file, e.g.

C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\BloomBetaInternal\app-4.0.3018\BloomBetaInternal.exe

However, you would have to redo this every time Bloom is updated, because the exact name changes.

2 Shortcut Problem

Symptom: You get an error like
Exception: Could not find the directory icons...
Solution:

  1. Delete that shortcut.
  2. Press Windows key, type “Bloom”, select the Bloom program that is offered.
  3. If you need a shortcut, uninstall and reinstall Bloom.

3 Try Again

The most common problem is antivirus programs opening up Bloom files to check them out, while the installer isn’t done with them. So sometimes just running again seems to solve the problem.

4 Temporarily lower your “User Account Control Settings”

We have found that this is enough to satisfy Avira, Symantec, and McAfee:

  1. Click on the Windows logo the Windows Task Bar
  2. Type UAC
  3. Take note of what level it is currently set at, because you’ll be putting it back to that later.
  4. Drag the control down to “Never Notify”
  5. Click OK, then “Yes”
  6. Run the Bloom installer
  7. Click on the Windows logo the Windows Task Bar
  8. Type UAC
  9. Drag the control back up to the level it was at in step 3.

5 Restart your computer

6 Clear out any Bloom program files:

The following will have no effect on any Bloom book work you have on the computer… they are safe.

  1. Click on the Windows logo the Windows Task Bar
  2. Type %localappdata%
  3. In the window that appears, find “BloomREACH” (or BloomBeta, or Bloom… whichever channel you’re using)
  4. Delete that Bloom folder.
  5. Other things to try

6 Temporarily disable your antivirus program

Note 1: if you are using only the built-in Windows Defender antivirus, we don’t recommend disabling that. Note 2: a growing portion of the tech world considers “3rd party” antivirus programs (Norton, Avast, AVG, etc.) to actually be a way to lessen your computer’s security, as they add to your computer’s “attack surface”.

The way to disable 3rd party antivirus programs varies by the product, so… you’ll have to look in the Helps for your program. Note, we find that some Bloom users have as many as three anti-virus programs running at the same time (!), and may not be aware of them all.

7 Tell your antivirus program that Bloom is OK

Again, the way to do this varies by antivirus, so… you’ll have to look in the Helps for your program. Often the keyword you’re looking for is “whitelist”. If you have problems after getting Bloom installed, this is what you’re going to have to do.

8 Install Bloom a different way

Bloom normally stays out of your Program Files directory, because that makes it hard to get updates. While installing other places is becoming more common (e.g. Google Chrome does it too), this may be what makes your antivirus program nervous.

Using this method means that Bloom will not be able to update itself to new versions. But if your choice is not having Bloom installed at all, well this will be better than nothing. To install Bloom into your Program Files:

  1. Click on the Windows logo the Windows Task Bar
  2. Type cmd (don’t press enter)
  3. Right-click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as Administrator”
  4. A black window named “Administrator: Command Prompt” will appear.
  5. Type cd
  6. Type bloominstaller.<tab> --allUsers <enter> (when you press tab, Windows should fill in the actual version number it finds)

Problems installing .net

See this post.

If all else fails

If all that fails, we’re so sorry! We know how frustrating this can be. Let us help you. Post a topic to the Bloom Questions Category.

Attach your “SquirrelSetup.log”, which should be in %localappdata%\SquirrelTemp.
To speed up the process, please tell us everything in the above list that you’ve already tried.