Installing Annie on Windows¶

This page is for people who want to use Annie on a Windows 10 or 11 laptop. You don’t need admin rights, and nothing else has to be installed first. Annie works on locked-down PCs where only your own user folder is writable: it changes nothing else (no registry entries, no Start menu, nothing in hidden AppData folders).

Install (once)¶

Download Annie-Setup.exe. This link always gives you the newest installer.
Double-click the downloaded file.
- Windows may show “Windows protected your PC”. This appears because the installer isn’t code-signed yet. Click More info, then Run anyway.
Welcome. Click Next.

Install folder. Keep C:\Users\<you>\Annie or choose another folder. Annie keeps everything inside it:

Inside the install folder	What is in it
`App`	Annie, its own Python, the `annie` Python environment with all dependencies, and FFmpeg
`Data`	Your work: reviews, saved configs, logs, and the example datasets
Annie	The shortcut that starts Annie
Uninstall Annie	The shortcut that removes Annie

Two options sit under the folder: Create a desktop shortcut (off by default) and Install example datasets (50 MB), small versions of First Impression V2 and CMU-MOSEI to try Annie on. If you leave the examples out, you can download them later from the Annie icon’s menu. Annie is not added to the Start menu.

Click Install. The same window shows the whole installation: first the files are copied, then Annie and its components are downloaded (a few hundred MB, a few minutes), with a progress bar, the megabytes downloaded so far, and a log of every package. Then Finish starts Annie.

You choose the folder once. Updates and reinstalls keep using it.

Daily use¶

Start: double-click Annie in the install folder, C:\Users\<you>\Annie (or on the desktop, if you created that shortcut). Tip: pin the folder to Quick access in File Explorer (right-click it, Pin to Quick access). A small Annie window appears at once with a progress bar, one line saying what is happening (“Checking for updates…”, “Starting…”) and a small box with the installed and the latest version and, during an update, the packages being downloaded. It closes by itself when Annie is ready. Your browser then opens Annie, and the Annie icon appears in the notification area at the bottom right of the taskbar. If it is hidden, click the ^ arrow next to the clock. If Annie cannot start, the window says why and offers Open log.
The Annie icon’s menu (right-click it):
- Open Annie opens it in the browser again. Double-clicking the icon does the same.
- Open Annie folder opens C:\Users\<you>\Annie in File Explorer, which holds both the program (App) and your work (Data). If you put those two in unrelated places, it opens the data folder.
- Download example datasets appears only while the examples are missing. It downloads them (about 50 MB) into Data\examples. Then reload Annie in the browser.
- Check for updates checks now. If there is a newer Annie, it updates and restarts.
- Quit Annie stops Annie. Closing only the browser tab does not stop it.
Your data drives: in Annie’s folder picker, go up to C:\ and the other drives (for example a USB disk) are listed there.

Where your work is kept¶

Everything you produce is in the data folder (C:\Users\<you>\Annie\Data by default):

Item	Location
Review progress (the `.db` files)	`Data\` and `Data\sessions\`
Saved dataset configs	`Data\configs\`
Logs (useful when reporting a problem)	`Data\logs\`
Example datasets (if installed)	`Data\examples\`

To try Annie on the examples, open the Dataset tab and choose [Example] CMU-MOSEI Mini or [Example] First Impression V2 Mini.

Annie reopens the dataset you used last, with all your progress. To back up your work, or to move it to another computer, copy this folder while Annie is stopped.

If you used the first Annie installer, which kept work directly in C:\Users\<you>\Annie, it is moved into the new data folder automatically when that folder is inside C:\Users\<you>\Annie (the default Annie\Data). If you choose a data folder elsewhere, your earlier work stays where it is; move it over yourself if you like.

Updating¶

Annie checks for a newer version every time it starts and installs it before opening; the start window shows the update’s progress and which packages it changes. That takes a few seconds, and without internet Annie simply starts the version you already have. You can also check any time from the icon’s menu with Check for updates.

Occasionally Annie shows a banner asking you to download the new installer, when the program folder itself (Python, FFmpeg, the launcher) needs updating. When that happens, download it from the same link and run it once. Your work and your chosen folders are kept.

Something is wrong¶

If video frames show a red broken-image icon, and a red bar at the top of Annie says that a Windows system library is missing, your copy of Annie predates the installer that includes the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime, which video decoding needs. Run the newest installer once (it keeps your folders and work). Hovering over a broken-image icon shows why that video could not be decoded, and the Log tab has the details.

To tell the developer about an error, open the Log tab and click Report next to it. You see exactly what will be sent (the error with its details, and the Annie and Windows versions; file paths in it can include your Windows user name), can add what you were doing, and click Send. The button then shows a green Sent, so each error is reported once.

For anything else, run the installer again. This repairs the installation: it rebuilds the program folder and downloads Annie’s components fresh. Your work in the data folder stays where it is. If the problem remains, report it from the Log tab, or send the newest file from Data\logs\ (and App\install.log, if the download failed) to the person who gave you Annie.

Uninstall¶

Double-click Uninstall Annie in the install folder, C:\Users\<you>\Annie. (Annie is not listed in Settings → Apps, because that list needs a registry entry.) This removes the program completely: the App folder with Annie’s Python, the annie environment and everything downloaded into it, and the shortcuts. At the end it asks whether to also delete your work. The default answer is No, which keeps Data. If nothing else is left, the install folder itself is removed too.

Annie needs no admin rights and installs nothing outside its folders: no registry entries, no Start menu entry, nothing in hidden AppData folders, no PATH changes, no services. (Windows itself may still note, as it does for any program you run, that the program was started.) If you installed Annie with an older installer, which added an entry to Settings → Apps and the Start menu, the new installer removes those when it updates that install.