DxO PhotoLab 10.1 Installation Failure on Windows 11 26H2 – Workaround Found

DxO PhotoLab
1

I encountered a reproducible installation issue with DxO PhotoLab 10.1 on a fully updated Windows 11 26H2 system.

Environment

  • DxO PhotoLab 10.1.0
  • Windows 11 26H2
  • OS Build 262300.9457
  • Smart App Control enabled
  • Windows App Runtime already installed
  • Microsoft App Installer installed and healthy

Error

The installer repeatedly failed with:

An issue occurred while installing the external package Microsoft Windows App SDK Runtime. The error was: The system cannot find the file specified.

The Microsoft Windows App Runtime installer itself completed successfully:

Installing license: MSIX_MAINPACKAGE_LICENSE

Install License result : 0x0

Installing license: MSIX_SINGLETONPACKAGE_LICENSE

Install License result : 0x0

All install operations successful.

Verification

The following Windows App Runtime packages were already installed and reported Status = Ok:

Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.1.6

Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.1.7

Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.1.8

Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.2 (v2.5.1.0)

Microsoft Desktop App Installer was also installed and healthy.

What the Log Shows

The DxO installer correctly detects the installed runtime:

Found package ‘MicrosoftCorporationII.WinAppRuntime.Main.2’

version: 2.5.1.0

Found package ‘MicrosoftCorporationII.WinAppRuntime.Singleton’

version: 8002.5.1.0

Found package ‘Microsoft.WinAppRuntime.DDLM.2.2.0.0-x6’

However, immediately afterwards it still attempts to install Windows App Runtime:

InstallWindowsAppSDKRuntimeIfNeeded :: Install Windows App SDK Runtime

The installer then tries to launch:

C:\Users<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\DxO PhotoLab Downloads

WindowsAppRuntimeInstall-x64_2.2.0.0.exe

and fails with:

System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception:

The system cannot find the file specified

Root Cause Found

The folder:

%TEMP%\DxO PhotoLab Downloads

contained the downloaded AI packages:

DxOInferenceEP-CUDA-800ac32.zip

DxOInferenceEP-OpenVINO-1.5.2.zip

DxOInferenceEP-TensorRT-RTX-0.4.0-cu13-1.zip

FilmPackResources-2025.10.21.1.zip

but did not contain:

WindowsAppRuntimeInstall-x64_2.2.0.0.exe

This is the executable the installer later tries to launch.

Workaround

  1. Downloaded Microsoft’s Windows App Runtime 2.2 redistributable manually.
  2. Copied WindowsAppRuntimeInstall-x64.exe into:

%TEMP%\DxO PhotoLab Downloads

  1. Renamed it to:

WindowsAppRuntimeInstall-x64_2.2.0.0.exe

  1. Reran the installer.

The installation then completed successfully:

Installation completed successfully.

Installation success or error status: 0

Additional Observation

The installer log reports:

VersionNT = 603

VersionNT64 = 603

WindowsBuild = 9600

which corresponds to Windows 8.1, while the actual system is Windows 11 26H2 (Build 262300.9457).

I’m not sure whether this is related to the issue, but it may indicate a problem in the installer’s OS detection or compatibility logic.

Conclusion

The issue does not appear to be caused by:

  • Windows App Runtime
  • Microsoft App Installer
  • Smart App Control

The installer correctly detects an existing and newer Windows App Runtime installation, but still attempts to launch a runtime installer executable that was never downloaded. Manually providing the missing executable allows the installation to complete successfully.

Hopefully this helps DxO reproduce and fix the issue.

2

Just did the installation now - 10 mn ago (last PL11 trial day).

So I did as usual : “Help/Check for update” and saved the .exe on drive. Renamed it with the version number included and runned it as administrator.

No problem here. Instalation ran smooth and fisrt run is ok.

3

Did you send a bug report ?

4

It will only help them if you report your problem to them via this page:
https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

5

I sure did, same message as I placed here.

6

I had the same issue with Photolab 9.13 update yesterday and reported it to Support.

In the meantime, ChatGPT found this post and got it resolved as presented here.

The only comment is that you need to time when you copy the WindowsAppRuntimeInstall-x64_2.2.0.0.exe into the temp directory (%TEMP%\DxO PhotoLab Downloads) while running the setup. I copied it once and it deleted as part of the installation, copied it again while still downloading other installation files and it worked.

After a few hours of troubleshooting, it worked. I just advised Support to look into their installation files to fix this issue.

Thanks for the post.

7

I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but you put all that time into building this doctoral dissertation on troubleshooting a PC problem with PL? Again, with all due respect, I’m sure there must be a reason other than price that so many people pursue image editing on a PC. More and more, Photoshop, PL, and others do not play nice on a PC. Yes, there are thousands of people making it work, and more power to them, but Photoshop, PL and most all image editing software runs SO MUCH better on a easily-properly-configured Macbook Pro. I NEVER have these problems; not ever!

8

You are not, but look at the Forum loads of MacBook issues as well. So let us not start a best platform discussion here, but make the product beter. Its fast and so much better then Lightroom.