windows installer fails when installing for all users

[gitterman]

Solution to issue cannot be found in the documentation.

• I checked the documentation.

Issue

I ran the installer on my windows 11 system for all users and

after unpacking it ran into the error shown on the picture.

Installed packages

conda list
Unable to create process using 'C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\pkgs\conda-24.11.3-py312h2e8e312_0\python.exe C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\pkgs\conda-24.11.3-py312h2e8e312_0\Scripts\conda-script.py list'

Environment info

Unable to create process using 'C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\pkgs\conda-24.11.3-py312h2e8e312_0\python.exe C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\pkgs\conda-24.11.3-py312h2e8e312_0\Scripts\conda-script.py info'

[hmaarrfk]

In truth, we don't test "all users" install, try "just me". Does that work?

[gitterman]

Thanks for the hint. It did indeed work.
Nonetheless, it is strange to me because I am administrator on my system and there is no special characters or blanks in the installation path.
I am the only user on my PC and in my view a piece of installed software belongs to the system, while I want to keep my user directory for my data only.
I don't want my user directory backups to become larger and larger because of programs that could easily be reinstalled from the internet. That said, I always install software for all users.

[hmaarrfk]

I think you can still install in C:\Miniforge3 if you are on a one user system.

Honestly, I just don't daily drive a windows machine, so I'm pretty behind on what the true bugs are:
#599

glad this workaround worked.

[gitterman]

Sorry, I need to re-open the issue.
When I installed to my user directory, the installation process did not terminate prematurely, but showed the 'Next' button in the installation window.
But shortly after that, a windows pop-up said that the installation program terminated unexpectedly (see pic)
I don't know what the installer wants to do as 'Next', but when I checked the installation, I found that conda.exe was not found.
Instead, I found _conda.exe in my %HOMEPATH%\miniforge3 directory.
I then searched for mamba.exe, but could not find it anywhere.
Thus, there seems to be something wrong with the installation.

[hmaarrfk]

I'm sorry, i'm not sure, i haven't installed on windows in a while. hopefully this gives others enough for you to work thorugh.

Do you have a Miniforge Prompt in your start menu? that is all you need.

[gitterman]

I think the installation is completely broken.
When I try to install again, I found that it is not possible to install over an existing installation
So I used the Windows uninstaller to remove the old installation, but it doesn't do its job properly.
It leaves almost everything behind, which I then cleaned manually before I tried another install, which also didn't terminate properly.
I do have a miniforge prompt, and it has miniforge3 in my path, but it does not work properly (see pic)
My main goal is to install cadquery as described here https://cadquery.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html#installation
For that I need conda and mamba, but both of them are not found in the installation, although they should be there.