Hello, I purchased Nexus Ultimate yesterday and I have received the emails with the links to the install files. After downloading the zip file, I have unzipped the files and I am clicking on the UltimateSetup file. After clicking this, nothing happens. No window popups or messages, it does absolutely nothing. I have the latest version of Windows 11 Pro and there are no updates to any apps.

The weird part is that I can perfectly download and install the free version of Nexus with no issues.

I did some searching and could not find something like my issue.

Any help would be appreciated.

That's rather strange.

Check the Details tab of the Windows Task Manager, see if the setup process appears when you run it. At the very least you should get a UAC prompt immediately after launching UltimateSetup.exe. If you don't get that, try right clicking the setup file and selecting 'Run as Administrator'.

Also, what anti-virus software are you running? Have you checked its logs to see if it might be blocking the setup application for Nexus Ultimate?

I have tried to run as admin with no result. I uninstalled the free version and just re-installed it with no problems.

I am on a windows 11 pro machine running windows defender as my only anti-virus.

Tried uninstalling free, restarting my machine and nothing still.

When I pull up task manager I dont see anything for Nexus.

My guess would be on Windows Defender attempting to be too smart (or dumb) for its own sake - assuming you downloaded Nexus Ultimate from the Winstep web site (i.e. link provided in the email with your license key), of course.

Although I'm running Eset here, I haven't heard of problems with Defender and Winstep applications, but you can try the following: open Windows Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Windows Security -> App & browser Control

See if Smart App Control is enabled, try temporarily disabling it if so. Look around for other possible settings that might be causing this issue.

There is also THIS.

What really bothers me is that whatever is blocking the Nexus Ultimate setup application from running is doing so silently. Sick of users being treated like babies who don't know what they are doing and then the innocent application getting the blame for over zealous security software.

Yes, I downloaded the ultimate app from the email. Havent got to the step to add the license key.

I tried both methods and even went a step further. I turned off all virus and threat protection settings as well as added the app to the "safe" list. I even turned off all virus protection as well as turned off all firewalls. All with the same result.

I have tried to install as an admin and as a regular user. Nada, nothing....

What else? Anything?

Plot thickens, I really am as clueless as you are at this point

Check the Windows Event Viewer after trying to run Setup, both the System and Application Windows logs. See any related error entry?

Also, you're not running an Insider (beta) version of Windows 11, right?

If you right click the UltimateSetup.exe file and select Properties, what size is it in bytes?

UltimateSetup is 41.3MB or 43,356,065bytes

Ran event viewer and I am not seeing anything on either the System and Application windows logs.

I am not running beta version of windows 11, I am running latest version of Windows 11 Pro.

Its so weird that I can install Nexus with no issues but Ultimate doesn't want to work......

Something just occurs from memory, although of course this was under Win 10. Don't know if it still happens as it's extremely rare these days that I need to install anything.

Anyway, what I recall sometimes happening that Windows would mark (some) downloads as 'blocked'. Just right-click on the file and select 'Properties'. If it says something like 'This file is blocked' with an option to un-block, then that's it, Bob's your uncle!

Winner winner chicken dinner (to go along with Bob's your uncle!)

This worked. I thought I had looked into this but I guess I only unblocked the folder and not the files within. I unblocked and was able to install!!!

Thanks to you both for your quick response and creative thinking! Winstep forum Admin and Mod for the win!!

Wow, this didn't even occur to me. How many different ways is Microsoft able to silently make your life an order of magnitude more difficult than it already is? Why the hell would they not simply pop up a dialog box saying "this file is blocked, here is what you need to do if you really want to run it...' ?!

Instead look at how much time was wasted on this - and multiply it by all those who also encountered this issue without a single clue to what was causing it... sigh

Anyway, Nexter, thanks for the solution.

Glad we got that sorted. Thought it might be worth a shot.

"How many ways doth Windows f**k with its users - let me count the ways..." Err, sorry for that paraphrase. Those ways are infinite, I think.

"'tis an ill wind that blows" didn't give rise to one of Windows' enduring 'nicknames' for nothing!