Download and Installation Instructions
Alice 2.x does not require "installation" in the same way that many other software applications do. All we really need is a place on the machine's hard drive to copy files. As a result, the installation of Alice 2.x should succeed on machines where others would fail.
Windows only instructions:
Download and extract the files within, as you would any other compressed (.zip) file. It will create an Alice folder within which you can run the Alice application (Alice.exe).
Windows 8 instructions
We have installed and are running Alice 2.3 on a new Windows 8 machine (a Dell "All in One" with wireless mouse and keyboard. Also, it has a touch screen). It is "alive and well" and working just fine in Windows 8.
To install, we followed (and recommend) these steps:
- Download the zipped file (Alice2.3.zip or Alice2.3b.zip) to the desktop.
- Unzip on the desktop.
- Move the unzipped folder (containing all of the Alice files) to the Program Files (X86) folder on the C:\ drive.
- Create a shortcut on the desktop for Alice.exe.
- Click the shortcut to start Alice.
By way of explanation: Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 all have a strong malware protection scheme that resists installing non-standard software directly on the hard drive. The best way I have found to work within this protection scheme is to unzip the Alice download on the desktop and then move it to the hard drive.
We do hope this is helpful.
OS-X only instructions:
After downloading Alice, double-click the disk image (.dmg) to mount the Alice volume. Open the Alice volume (it should open automatically) and drag the Alice app to your desktop. If the file gets copied successfully, you can drag the Alice volume to the trash.
NOTE: On OS X 10.8.x (Mountain Lion), the default settings for the Finder hides the hard drives and external drives connected to your system. The Alice download opens a .dmg - disk image - file which is a virtual external drive. So it may appear that after the Alice download has completed, you may double-click on the file and it will seem that nothing has happened. If this is the case:
- Click once on your desktop, so that you are in the Finder.
- Go to the Finder menu and select "Preferences"
- Look at the following image and make sure that you have the same settings…
- Close the preferences window.
You should now see your hard drive, and the Alice .dmg icon (Looks like an external drive). If not, attempt to open the Alice download again.
Linux-only instructions:
Be sure to install Java on your machine before trying to install Alice for Linux.
- Click on Download Alice 2.x for Linux for the appropriate gallery version of Alice 2.x.
- After the download is complete, unzip the downloaded file.
- Place the complete uncompressed directory in the desired location on your machine.
- Open the Alice 2.x directory
- Find the Required directory in the Alice 2.x directory and open it
- Double-click the run-alice file in the Required directory (you may wish to create a short-cut for this file to place on your desktop).
- If Alice does not start, you may need to reset the classpath for the Java location on your machine.
Using Alice on a networked machine:
Alice 2.x compatibility with networked machines has been hit-or-miss. This was due to the Alice 2 preferences file location being hard-coded as:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\.alice
In cases where the user's home directory was not on the C drive or in a different path, Alice would display a gallery viewer error and possibly prevent the user from accessing Alice.
We have modified Alice 2.x to allow the user to enter in the path to a writable directory on any drive, networked or local. This can be done by
- Locate and delete the .alice2 folder, located in the user's home directory (if it exists) from the current location on the machine because Alice will search in this directory first before redirecting items to the network location. Deleting this directory is not a problem as Alice will always recreate it the next time Alice starts.
- Edit the following file in a text editor:
Alice 2.x\Required\etc\config.txt
In the config.txt file, you should see something that looks like this:
0,78,152
(Note: The numbers (0,78,152), set the background color in Alice. Contact us if you are interested in changing the background for better view or display when using a projector. )
Add a new line at the bottom and enter in the *full* path to where you would like the preferences stored. This will need to be a writable directory. Do not use quotes. For example, to change the location to the desktop on drive E, do the following:
0,78,152
E:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Desktop\
Save the file and close it. If Alice is running, make sure to shut it down and restart. To confirm the entered path is working properly, navigate to the directory you typed above and you should see a .alice2 directory. If you do not see one, make sure hidden directories are viewable.
Bug Reporting
If you discover new bugs in Alice 2.3, please let us know! Make sure to be as detailed as possible, and indicate the OS you are using, as well as whether this bug is new to 2.3 or in earlier versions of Alice. We have worked hard on getting this release as stable as possible, but we need your feedback! We will do our best to fix major bugs immediately, minor bugs before the next release. Thank you in advance for your help and patience!
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