If you are a regular user of Windows Pro Tools and use video, odds are that when you’ve installed any of the 2020 releases, the first time you’ve fired up Pro Tools, you’ve seen this message. This is because, in recent releases, Avid has been having an issue with Windows installers, resulting in that they don’t always install all components in one go.

What can we do to prevent this? In this article, Post Production and Windows specialist Alan Sallabank, gives you the best workflow to ensure a smooth and complete install with your new Windows Pro Tools 2020.9 installer.

First Things First - Uninstall The Old Version

It’s very tempting to simply “over-install” when upgrading, but that is often where trouble can lie. First, from your desktop, press the Windows key on your keyboard and type the words, “Control Panel”.

This will bring up the shortcut to the old-style Windows Control Panel (different to the newer “Settings” page), where you can find the “Programs and Features” option.

From here you can bring up a list of all your installed software. It’s usually easiest to sort your installed programs by manufacturer. Assuming you already have a working AVE installation, you need to look for the Avid Video Engine, then select “Uninstall” (if you do not have the AVE already installed, you can skip this step).

Once you have done this, you can then uninstall Pro Tools. You don’t have to worry about losing all your settings or plug-ins, AS LONG AS YOU FOLLOW THESE STEPS.

Select the “Change” option - you won’t get an “Uninstall” option.

If you want to keep all your settings and plug-ins, be sure to select “Pro Tools Only”

Once the uninstall is finished (you may be asked to restart your system), you can now proceed to the next step.

Step Two - Install Pro Tools 2020.9

This is the usual procedure of unzipping the file you’ve downloaded from your Avid account and double-clicking the “Setup” application.

Once Pro Tools has installed, you are usually asked to restart your system. It’s always worth following this advice, as it allows Windows to tidy up and get its ship in order.

Step Three - Install The Avid Video Engine

If you now open Pro Tools, you will get the error message shown at the top of this article and below. So, your best bet is to avoid that entirely and instead go straight to Installing the Avid Video Engine.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your System Drive - usually C:.

You can copy and paste the following location into your Windows Explorer browser bar (just like with a web browser) -

C:\Program Files\Avid\Pro Tools\Pro Tools Utilities\Avid Video Engine

Double-click on the “AvidVideoEngineSetup” application to install the AVE -

Once the AVE is installed, I’d always recommend another restart, to let Windows get itself in order again. Once you’ve done that, you can now fire up Pro Tools with the latest greatest video engine installed. Of course, don’t forget to enable the video engine first in the Playback Engine settings -

Final Step - Enjoy!

Congratulations - you’ve now got the Avid Video Engine on your Windows Pro Tools 2020.9 install. And double congratulations are in store - from all my years of experience running Pro Tools on both Windows and Macs, I’ve found that the AVE on Windows, for me, has been far more stable and reliable than on the Mac, especially when using Blackmagic hardware.