Installation

You will find brief instructions on how to download and install the appropriate program package for your operating system here. You will also find information here on features specific to operating systems which are not otherwise discussed in this manual.

The current version of "Front Panel Designer" is available for free download on the Front Panel Express LLC website, with versions for the operating systems Windows, MacOS X and Linux.

We are also happy to send you a USB stick with the installation package. Please let us know which operating system you are using.

You can install "Front Panel Designer" under the following versions of Windows:

10, 8, 7, Vista, XP

Start the installation by double-clicking the downloaded .exe file in "Explorer" or other file manager and then follow the instructions.

Windows 98 and Me additionally require unicows.dll from Microsoft. You can find the appropriate installer file to download in the Microsoft Download Center (Link).

You can install "Front Panel Designer" under the following versions of Mac OS X:

10.11 (El Capitan), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.7 (Lion), 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

If a newer version of the operating system is released in the meantime, we will modify our software immediately.

Please select the DMG file variant that matches the architecture of your operating system from the two DMG files which are offered in the list box for Mac OS X on the download page of our website. You can retrieve the required information about your operating system by clicking the menu item "About this Mac". The application is then stored in the folder, which is provided by your version of the operating system for this. It can be moved at any time by the user into a folder of his choice.

When launching "Front Panel Designer" for the first time, a license agreement is displayed which must be accepted to enable the program to run.

In order to install "Front Panel Designer" on Linux, there are packages for the managers of the most popular Linux distributions as well as a manual installation package for several other distributions:

•	Deb package: Ubuntu, Debian, LinuxMint

•	RPM package: OpenSUSE, Fedora, CentOS, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva

•	Manual installation (tar.bz2 package): Slackware, gentoo

The packages are tailored to the most recent versions. Backward compatibility with versions up to three years older than the current version is striven for.

When launching "Front Panel Designer" for the first time, a license agreement is displayed which must be accepted to enable the program to run.

Installation on other distributions or on older versions is possible, provided that the following components are present in the specified minimum version release:

•

gtk+ 2

•	libstdc++ 6

•

libc 6

•	libpng 1.2

•	libjpeg 6.2

•	freetype 6

•

zlib

The distributions must be based on processors with i386 (32 bit) or x64 (64-bit) architectures.

The simplest way to do this is to open the appropriate software package in the file manager. If your distribution does not support this, you can install the program by typing at the command line (with "root" privileges!):

•	Deb package: ich@mypc> dpkg -i FrontDesign.deb

•	RPM package: ich@mypc> rpm -ihv FrontDesign.rpm

If you want to update an existing installation on an RPM based system, use the parameter "-Uhv" instead of "-ihv".

To install, unzip the tar.bz2 file you selected in the desired destination folder. So that "Front Panel Designer" can also be used by other registered users of the computer, the target directory should be located in the /opt subdirectory.

The program can be launched by double-clicking on Target Directory/FrontDesign/bin/FrontDesign.

Please take note of our license conditions for the use of "Front Panel Designer" which you accept through installing, copying or other use. These are also are stored on the Internet and can be viewed and printed out from there.

You can use different versions of "Front Panel Designer" in parallel. If you install a newer version, older versions can continue to be used on the computer and uninstalled at a later date.

If you do use different versions of Front Panel Designer however, please remember that for every order - regardless of the version used - only the price calculation associated with the latest version is valid.

Every time that "Front Panel Designer" is launched, it asks our server online by default if your version matches the latest version currently offered by us.

In the event that your version does not match the newest version currently available, a dialog will appear informing you of the latest version and offering a link to the download page.

You are also informed whether the latest version involves changes in prices. In order to determine the valid prices for your future designs, the installation of the updated version is required.

In order to inhibit the online query for newer versions, please check the box "Do not check for newer versions in future". You can revise this measure at any time in the settings (Ctrl + e) on the "surface" tab.

If you have inhibited the online query for newer versions (check mark in the "Do not check for newer versions in future" box), you should from time to time visit the website of Front Panel Express LLC to see whether a newer version of "Front Panel Designer" is available.

Please remember that for each order – regardless of the version used – only the price calculation associated with the latest version is valid.