Supported Systems
APT is supported on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7. (We have done a brief aliveness test on Windows 8 and it appears to work, please let us know if you have any issues.)
APT requires a minimum of 512 Megabytes of RAM (memory), but we recommend at least 1 Gigabyte of RAM. Please see our memory discussion for more information.
APT is now available for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. (To determine which you have look at the System information in the Control Panel.)
Depending on your institution's computer security measures (firewalls, blocked ports, etc.), you may initially have communication trouble with APT. If you have any concerns please see our firewall webpage.
1. UnInstall the previous version
If you are going to install APT in the same folder as a previous version, please remove the previous version first. If you are going to install in a separate folder, you still might consider uninstalling to save disk space (and possible confusion between the different versions).Here are instructions for getting rid of the old APT:
- Delete the APT installation folder.
- Remove the link to the deleted installation that is in your Start Menu (in the STScI folder) by right clicking and deleting.
2. Download and Install
Choose your operating system: APT is available for both the 32-bit and 64-bit version of Windows. (To determine which you have look at the System information in the Control Panel.)
Install APT to a folder you have default privileges for: We recommend installing this software into the default location (which is a folder within the user's home folder). In situations where APT must be installed into a common area (such as C:\Program Files), you may need to use an actual Administrator account and not an account that has Administrator privileges or some institution-specific configuration of heightened privileges. If you choose to install to this location, please be sure to specify a folder within Program Files e.g. C:\Program Files\APT_21.0.
Proceed to the Installation...
3. Start
Once you have installed APT you can invoke it from the Start menu if you have created shortcuts. For instance if you chose the default shortcuts, go to Start menu and choose Programs>STScI>APT_21.0>APT. If you did not create shortcuts, you may invoke APT from the APT installation folder.
4. Help
There is a series of short training movies which will help get you started (there are also web pages with screen shots available on the same page). APT also has documentation available from the "Help" menu (the right-most menu on the menu bar).
If you can't find what you need, please contact us at help@stsci.edu.
How to find out about new releases
We maintain a distribution list for announcing new releases of APT. This may be helpful to people who install APT for others to use. Send an e-mail to majordomo@stsci.edu which contains the line:
subscribe apt-users
Troubleshooting
If there are problems with the installation you can turn on debug logging and sometimes that will reveal the problem. This debug log would also be useful to send us if you can't figure out the problem. Contact us (through help@stsci.edu) if you have problems with installation.
To turn debug logging on during installation:
- bring up the command prompt (Start>Accessories>Command Prompt)
- cd to the folder where the install-windows-apt.jar file was created. (This file is probably where you saved the installer - i.e. your Downloads folder. Note that you cannot turn debug logging on until the install-windows-apt.exe file has been opened, which then creates the install-windows-apt.jar file.)
- type: jre\bin\java -DTRACE=true -jar install-windows-apt.jar
To turn debug logging on while running APT: Go to the APT installation folder and double click on the APT.bat icon.
Known Installation/Download Problems:
- Starting the installer does not work.
In the console window, you may see messages about "checkdir error" scrolling by. This can happen if you click in your browser's download manager to invoke the installer. (We saw this with IE, Firefox and Safari on Vista and 7.) This appears to cause APT to try and unpack in the installation folder of the browser which you may not have privilege to write to. Navigate to the location where the installer was saved (possibly your Downloads folder), and double click on the installer there.
- Get pop up: "This directory can not be written!"
This message comes up when attempting to install to a privileged folder (such as C:\Program Files) with an account that does not have default privileges to write to that folder. By default APT's installer will attempt to put APT in your user folder which should work fine.
- Exception in thread "Basic L&F File Loading Thread"
If you navigate to a different installation location (such as C:\Program Files) you may see this message in the console. As long as you have privilege to install in this location the installation should proceed correctly despite this exception.
- "This program might not have installed correctly"
This message may appear for either the APT installation or the Uninstaller. Just select the option "This program installed correctly".
- Files left behind
When the installation is complete, the installer does not clean up the jre folder or install-windows-apt.jar file which were unpacked in the same folder as the installer file as part of the installation process. Feel free to clean this up or leave them there. (These files will be written over the next time you install.) They are also useful if you find you need to debug your installation.
- Requested shortcuts were not created in the Start menu
There is a bug in the software we are using that happens when you are going through the installer panels and you backup (using the "Previous" button) from the Setup Shortcuts panel. When you return to the Shortcuts panel it is blank and if you continue with the installation, no Shortcuts will be created. If the console window is up during the installation you will also see an exception: "could not create shortcut instance java.lang.Exception: could not get an instance of IShellLink, failed to co-create instance". You also may get a pop up at the end of the installation that says the "Program might not have installed properly." (Just click that it installed correctly.)
- APT fails without any pop up
If APT fails without comment when you invoke it, it could be due to installing APT to a location that you previously uninstalled APT. This would be the case if when you uninstalled you checked the box that says: "Force the deletion of ...". (Checking this box leaves behind an incomplete jre folder which is not replaced during the next installation.) The workaround is to delete the incomplete jre folder within the APT installation folder and try again.
- After Uninstalling APT there are still files remaining
When you uninstall using the uninstaller, the installation folder will remain and it will contain a folder called "jre". You can delete this or leave it if you plan to reinstall in the same folder (but only if you did not check the box that says "Force the deletion of ..."). You will also see a pop up after uninstalling that says "Program might not have installed correctly". This is probably due to the left over files. (Just click on the option that it installed correctly.)
- Get "Protect my computer" pop up when uninstalling
On XP and Vista, a user without Admin privileges cannot uninstall APT even though he was able to install it. If you get this pop up and you select "Protect my computer" the uninstall will not continue. You will need to get someone with Admin privileges to type their password in order to do the uninstall.
- JavaOutOfMemory exception
If you get a JavaOutOfMemory exception during the installation, please exit out of other applications and try again.