Once you've downloaded Construct 2, the Setup will begin to install it to your computer. Click Next > to advance through the steps.
Your browser or Windows may show a security warning before running the setup. You should check the publisher is listed as Scirra Ltd before running. This helps ensure the setup is a genuine Construct 2 setup from Scirra and not something malicious from a third party.
Portable installation
Construct 2 can be used as portable software. In other words, you can install it to a removable drive (like a USB stick) and use it on any computer. If you want to do this, set the install folder to a folder on your removable drive.
32-bit and 64-bit versions
There are both 32-bit (for older computers) and 64-bit (for newer computers) versions of Construct 2. If you're not sure you can leave the setup to auto-detect. However, if you're installing to a removable drive, you may want to specifically install the 32-bit version. This is because the 32-bit version will run on both 32-bit and 64-bit computers, but the 64-bit version will not run on 32-bit computers.
Limited user accounts
Construct 2 can still be installed on limited user accounts without administrative access. This is common in workplaces, schools, universities, libraries and other public access computers. You should still be able to download and install Construct 2 on a limited user account, as long as other restrictions are not in place. In this case the setup cannot access the Program Files directory. Instead it will install to a folder in your user account. Other users may have to install the software for themselves as well. Some systems will also uninstall the software when you log out; you may need to reinstall every time you log in.
If setup fails due to other limitations (e.g. not being allowed to download EXEs from the internet), try a portable installation instead. Install Construct 2 to a removable drive on a computer you can run the setup on, then try taking the removable drive to the limited computer and running it from the drive.
Updates
If you already have Construct 2 installed and you're installing an update, the setup will offer to remove the last installed copy of Construct 2. You should always remove the old version unless you have installed Construct 2 twice (e.g. to the host computer and also to a portable drive, in which case uninstalling may remove the portable install).
Uninstalling
Construct 2 can be uninstalled via Add/Remove programs (Windows XP) or Programs and features (Windows Vista and newer) in Control Panel.
Site-wide installations
If you are installing Construct 2 to a lot of computers, remember the installation is portable. This means it has no dependencies outside its Program Files folder. You can install it to multiple machines by installing it to one machine and copying the installation folder (and any shortcuts you want) to other computers.
You can also use the following command-line switches to run the setup executable automatically, without prompting:
construct2-setup.exe /SP- /SILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES
By default this also adds an icon to the Start menu. You can add /NOICONS to prevent this.
Using a site-wide license
To make sure Construct 2 finds your site-wide license, simply place it in the install directory on each computer. If that does not work, you can use the 'Load license file' link in the About dialog to locate it. Normally this only needs to be done once and then Construct 2 will remember the location in the registry. However, some networks revert any changes to the registry when the user logs out. This will make Construct 2 keep forgetting the license path. To ensure it is remembered, contact your network administrator. The license path is stored in the following registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Scirra\Construct2\LicensePath
This must be a string with the full path to the license file, e.g. C:\Path\To\c2license.txt. Your network administrator must ensure this registry key is preserved when logging out, and then the license should be remembered permanently.
It may be desirable to hide the "View license" link in the About dialog when using a site license. To hide it, set the following registry key to the DWORD value 1:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Scirra\Construct2\HideLicenseLink