Important:
In 2022, after 20 years of supporting both 64-bit and 32-bit versions
of Manifold products, Manifold dropped support for 32-bit versions. The
last base build for Manifold Release 9 that includes a 32-bit version
is build 177. The
last base build for Manifold Release 8 that includes a 32-bit version
is build 8.0.33. Users
who require 32-bit versions should use a 32-bit version of build 177 for
Release 9 and a 32-bit version of build 8.0.33 for Release 8. Base
builds do not expire and are expected to be available as legacy downloads
for a reasonable period of time. See the product downloads
pages for Release 9, Release 8, and Manifold Viewer for links to legacy
downloads.
The following topic is the outdated, legacy version of the Installations topic that can be used for legacy builds of Manifold, such as build 177, that are no longer provided but which do provide 32-bit versions of Manifold. A better idea is to run 64-bit Windows and to use modern, 64-bit versions of Manifold, but if you are stuck using 32-bit Windows or for some other reason must use Manifold in 32-bit mode, the following topic may help when installing 32-bit legacy versions of Manifold.
This topic describes installation options for Manifold Release 9 and Manifold Viewer, including the difference between Windows Installer packages and portable installations, and the details of Windows and hardware prerequisites. To go straight to the illustrated, step by step installation topics, please visit:
Install and Activate - Illustrated, step by step installation.
Manifold Activation - How activation works, including how activations always regrow for reuse.
A Manifold System Release 9 installation requires a Release 9 serial number with available activations. If you do not have a Release 9 serial number you can procure a serial number on the Manifold Online Store. All Release 9 serial numbers are x64, fully 64-bit serial numbers and will authorize both 64-bit and 32-bit installations.
Manifold Viewer is a free, read-only version of Manifold Release 9 that does not require any serial numbers.
Manifold Server is a high performance, parallel, read-only, spatial database server. It allows many Manifold users to share data that is published through Server. Installing Manifold 9 Universal edition automatically installs a limited configuration of Manifold Server. Installing Manifold 9 Server edition automatically installs an unlimited version of Manifold Server. Manifold 9 Professional Edition, Manifold Viewer, and Manifold's SQL for ArcGIS® Pro products do not install Manifold Server. See the Manifold Server topic for details.
Manifold Commander is a console application version of Manifold that provides the full range of Manifold query and scripting capabilities from a command line, making it easy to automate tasks. Manifold 9 Universal and Manifold 9 Server editions include Manifold Commander. Manifold 9 Professional Edition, Manifold Viewer, and Manifold's SQL for ArcGIS® Pro products do not include Manifold Commander. See the Manifold Commander topic for details.
Important:
In 2022, after 20 years of supporting both 64-bit and 32-bit versions
of Manifold products, Manifold dropped support for 32-bit versions. The
last base build for Manifold Release 9 that includes a 32-bit version
is build 177. The
last base build for Manifold Release 8 that includes a 32-bit version
is build 8.0.33. Users
who require 32-bit versions should use a 32-bit version of build 177 for
Release 9 and a 32-bit version of build 8.0.33 for Release 8. Base
builds do not expire and are expected to be available as legacy downloads
for a reasonable period of time. See the product downloads
pages for Release 9, Release 8, and Manifold Viewer for links to legacy
downloads.
This topic discusses modern Manifold builds that provide 64-bit installations.
Release 9 can be installed and used along with other Manifold products as follows:
Different types of Manifold System and/or Manifold Viewer installations can run at the same time. For example, all at the same time we can launch 32-bit Manifold Release 9, launch a 64-bit Manifold Release 9 session, launch Viewer in 32-bit or 64-bit mode and also launch a manifold.exe from a portable installation folder, and we can do all that at the same time as launching a Manifold Release 8 session.
Once Manifold Release 9 has been activated on a computer, we can uninstall and install Release 9 as many times as we want on that computer and activation will be remembered, with no need to activate each new installation. For example, we can install new updates to Release 9 (newer builds), or launch newer Release 9 portable installations on that machine. Activation will be remembered so long as no major changes requiring re-activation have been done. You can run the same license for years without re-activating, installing new builds as they are issued every few weeks.
When activating a Manifold 9 Server license, make sure to check the Install for all users (admin) box to activate the license for all users.
Once a serial number is activated on a machine, that serial number will continue to be used. To change to a different serial number, for example, if upgrading a machine from a Manifold 9 Professional license to a Manifold 9 Universal or Manifold 9 Server license, the old license must be replaced with a new serial number that authorizes the new license.
To change the serial number and license in use, launch Manifold and choose Help - About and then press the Switch License button. That will pop open the Activation dialog again so a new serial number can be entered.
To use Manifold in languages other than English, see the Localization topic.
Manifold evolves very rapidly, with dozens of new features per week. Some people always want the latest version, while others prefer to update less frequently. To meet both needs, Manifold's Release 9 Download page provides both newer (Cutting Edge) and older (Base) downloads for Manifold Release 9:
Release 9 Base - Base builds are older versions of Edge builds. They are issued every few months for those who prefer a Windows Installer installation or who do not want to keep up with the latest Edge build. Base builds do not include the latest features and bug fixes. Base builds are provided both as Windows Installer installations and also as portable installations. When launched, Base builds will check if a more recent Base build has been issued. Base builds do not time out. Infrequent users may prefer Base builds.
Cutting
Edge builds are recommended. Frequent users and more advanced
users always choose Edge builds.
Edge builds are recommended for beginners as well, because step by step
examples in the User Manual match Edge builds. Base builds do not match
the latest and greatest info in the online user manual, which can be confusing
to beginners.
After a series of Cutting Edge builds add many new features, Manifold publishes an updated Base build of Release 9. Base builds are simply a way of announcing that so many new features have been added that, even for those users who prefer to upgrade infrequently, it is now time to catch up to all the new features and bug fixes. Base builds are also an opportunity to publish Windows Installer versions of an installation package, for those people who prefer an old-school Microsoft approach to software installation.
Most Manifold and Viewer users will use Edge builds. Although Edge builds are technically "beta" builds, they have proven to be so exceptionally stable that everyone now thinks of them as the only thing to use. This documentation tracks Edge builds, usually catching up to the latest Edge build before the next Edge build is issued. Manifold documentation describes features that are found in Edge builds but not in Base builds.
New builds incorporate
all that has gone before. No need to install an older build before
downloading and using the latest build. No need to install
an Base build before downloading and using the latest Cutting Edge build,
or vice versa.
Important: Cutting Edge builds are time-limited to operating three months after they are issued. Since new Edge builds come out every week or two, that is plenty of time to download a newer Edge build, but it does ensure that rapidly-evolving builds do not linger long after they are obsolete. Edge builds expire on the first day of the third month following the build month.
For example, an Edge build issued mid-August will continue working during August, September and October, and will expire on the 1st of November. One month or less before the expiration date, starting an Edge build will open the log window with a warning that the build will soon expire. After the expiration date, attempting to start an Edge build will fail with a message the build has expired and advising the download of a newer build.
The very lengthy expiration period saves us from worrying about an Edge build expiring if we depart for a two month vacation to a place with no Internet. If an Edge build fails to launch, download and utilize whatever is the current Cutting Edge build.
Manifold provides two different ways to install Manifold, so we can pick the installation style we prefer: installations that utilize Windows Installer, and portable installations. Both styles have advantages and disadvantage, and both styles of installation can coexist on the same machine at the same time.
Windows Installer is the classic way of installing software in Windows system: double-click an .msi or .exe package and a dialog steps us through an installation. Manifold uses .exe files to enable smoother updates of prerequisites, if required. When done, the application becomes part of the Windows Start button system, usually automatically associating itself with file types that it claims. Windows Installer was originally intended to make life easier for unskilled consumers.
Base builds can be installed Windows installer or as a portable installation. The Release 9 Download page provides a Base build in the form of a pre-packaged .exe file that utilizes Microsoft's Windows Installer facility. Installation .exe files are published for 64-bit Windows systems and 32-bit Windows systems. Running the .exe installation file will perform an installation that installs require prerequisites, uninstalls older versions of Release 9, and then installs the new Release 9 package.
Advantages - Windows Installer is great both for unskilled consumers as well as skilled users in a hurry who want to install an application in the usual Windows way:
Windows Installer almost always works perfectly.
Windows Installer will register the new Release 9 application so Manifold Release 9 appears in the Windows Start menu list and so that .map and .mxb files are automatically opened by Release 9 when we double-click them.
The ODBC driver for Manifold will be automatically installed by a Windows Installer installation.
Pre-requisites, such as .NET and C++ Redistributables will be automatically installed.
We can uninstall using the usual Windows Control Panel - Programs and Features mechanism for a quick and easy un-install in almost every case.
Disadvantages - Windows Installer's attempts to protect unskilled users from themselves can lead to complications:
Anti-virus or other brain-dead "helper" or "security" programs can prevent installation.
During installation some versions of Windows will pop open dialogs that warn users the application is unknown and may be dangerous. That is false information, but such dialogs may alarm unskilled users, who may hesitate to ignore such dialogs.
Manifold uses Windows facilities that will be updated automatically, if need be, during installation. Windows may insist the system must be restarted after installation.
Installer uses two different installation files, one for 32-bit Windows and one for 64-bit Windows. Users must know if they are running 64-bit or 32-bit Windows, and must not attempt to install the 64-bit installation file in 32-bit Windows. This is not rocket science and no more complicated than making sure not to pour gasoline fuel into a diesel-powered automobile, but it may confuse unskilled users who do not know what version of Windows they have.
Only one version of Release 9 can be installed at a time by Windows Installer. We cannot use this mechanism to have an older build and a newer build installed within the Windows Start system at the same time.
When it comes time to uninstall, if the installation has been damaged or something else happens to cause Windows Installer to become confused, manual uninstallation involving significant complications, heroic technical effort, and plenty of misery might be required.
Consumers that prefer Windows Installer files are often annoyed by frequent updates, so Manifold publishes Windows Installer packages for Release 9 only for Base builds, which update every few months. That usually means, on average, that Windows Installer installations are very far behind the current Release 9 build.
For a step-by-step example of installation using a .exe installation, and activation that applies to either an .exe installation or a portable installation, see the Install and Activate topic.
Portable installations are a fast way of installing software without messing about with Windows Installer. Yay! Portable installations require slightly more knowledge, but they allow us to have multiple different versions of the same product. We can download and launch a new version without uninstalling an older version.
A portable installation is just a .zip file. The .zip file unzips into a set of folders containing both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Manifold Release 9, ready for immediate launch with no further installation required. This completely avoids the Microsoft Windows Installer system and has no effect whatsoever on any previous version of Manifold that has been installed. Portable installations are published both for Base builds and for Edge builds. Edge builds are published only as portable installations.
Advantages - Portable installations do not use Windows Installer. That says it all for many experienced Windows users. Portable installations thus avoid all of the complications that can occur when measures intended to protect unskilled consumers from themselves go astray. Unzip the portable installation to whatever location we want, even a portable USB drive, and then launch from that location and Manifold is running.
We never encounter the miseries of dealing with a Windows Installer gone insane, and we never encounter misleading Windows warnings that an application may be dangerous when it is perfectly safe.
We can have multiple versions of Manifold unzipped into different folders and launch each one whenever we want, even at the same time.
There is no "installation" required so "uninstallation" is a simple matter of deleting the folders that contain the unzipped contents of the zip file.
There is reduced impact from anti-virus software that wrongly thinks software we want to run is malware.
There are no hidden changes to the system or registry caused by install scripts.
We can carry around a Manifold Release 9 portable installation on a USB drive and it will work on any computer for which a Release 9 license has been activated. That allows us to carry around the latest and greatest version on a USB drive along with example data or demo data, accessory applications like portable installations of DBMS packages, and run from a completely familiar environment, even on computers which we do not normally use.
Manifold publishes the latest and greatest Release 9 build, including all the latest bug fixes, as portable installations.
Disadvantages - Portable installations require some slight knowledge, such as unzipping a file, that a totally unskilled consumer might not have.
Small amounts of technical knowledge, such as how to open File Explorer to navigate folders and knowing how to unzip a file, are required.
The Manifold application within the unzipped folders will not appear in the Windows Start menu list by default (we can manually pin the executable to Start, if desired). We have to launch Manifold by double-clicking the manifold.exe file in the unzipped folder, or by double-clicking a shortcut to that file which we have created.
The Manifold application within the unzipped folders will not automatically be bound to .map and .mxb files to launch when we double-click such files.
The Manifold ODBC package is not automatically installed. We must install it from the Help - About dialog.
We may have to manually install prerequisites, such as the Microsoft C++ Redistributable package or Microsoft .NET Framework, required for Manifold installation.
Video: To learn how to install and run a portable installation, see the Manifold Viewer - Install and Run video. Using a portable installation is the same basic procedure for either Viewer or Manifold Release 9. Using a portable installation is easy. Avoiding Windows Installer hassles is such a delight that many people, once they learn how to use portable installations, will prefer portable installations.
Activation of a portable installation is the same as activating an .exe installation. See the Install and Activate topic.
Portable installations are for all users who a) do not want to mess with Windows installer, and/or b) frequently update their Manifold package to the latest Cutting Edge build, and/or c) like having Viewer on a USB zip drive to use on whatever computer they happen to have at hand. Cutting Edge builds of Manifold and Viewer are released only as portable installations.
Portable installations are self-contained zip files that do not utilize or otherwise interact with Windows Installer. They provide a way to quickly launch Release 9 or Viewer without doing any Windows installation or having to remove a previously-installed Manifold package. Users who want to try out Cutting Edge builds without altering their main Release 9 installation will use a portable installation. Multiple, different portable installations can be run side by side so users can launch different Release 9 builds at the same time.
To use a portable installation download the .zip file, and unzip the file to create a folder hierarchy. The 64-bit manifold.exe executable is in the bin64 folder and the 32-bit executable is in the bin folder.
To launch Release 9 in 64-bit mode, double-click on the manifold.exe file found in the bin64 folder of the resulting folder hierarchy. To launch Release 9 in 32-bit mode, double-click on the manifold.exe file found in the bin folder of the resulting folder hierarchy.
Activation: If Release
9 has been activated on that machine, then Release 9 will run from a portable
installation without any further need to activate. If Release
9 has not been activated, then on first launch the Activation dialog will
pop open. and activation will be exactly the same as shown in the Install
and Activate topic. Viewer does not
use a serial number or activation, so no activation dialog ever pops open
with Viewer.
Fast Launches of Portable Installations - People sometimes think the only way to get a fast, one-click launch of Manifold is to use a Windows Installer package, so Manifold can be launched from the Windows Start button system. In contrast, with a portable installation it may seem the launch process is slower, since we have to open a Windows Explorer window, drill down into the portable installation hierarchy to find the manifold.exe file, and then double-click that to launch Manifold. But we can get the same, fast, one-click launch of Manifold from a portable installation. There are three ways to do that.
Pin to Start - If we like, we can drill down into the portable installation hierarchy just once, right click on the manifold.exe file and choose Pin to Start to add it to our Windows 10 Start button choices. If we do that, we have to remember to unpin it when we switch to using a different, newer portable installation.
Right Click on a Manifold Taskbar Session - When Manifold launches, a red Manifold triangle icon appears on the Windows taskbar at the bottom of our monitor for that Manifold session. Manifold users often will have more than one Manifold session running at the same time. If we leave at least one Manifold session running all of the time (perhaps with a new project), we can simply right-click onto the icon in the task bar and choose Manifold System 9.0 to launch another session. The new session will launch using the same manifold.exe location that the running session used. This is probably the most popular approach for users who run with portable installations.
Keep Windows Explorer Open - Many people have one or more Windows Explorer session running at the same time. If we leave a Windows Explorer session running that shows the bin64 or bin folder for our portable installation, we can switch to that and double-click on manifold.exe to launch another session.
Activation of Manifold products requires an Internet connection. For routine operation, the computer must have at least some Internet connectivity from time to time, to allow occasional checks of license status. See the Manifold Activation topic.
Manifold products are produced and licensed for true PC compatible hardware, running on the actual physical machine, and are not supported for PC emulators or virtual machines or other software which claims to mimic a real PC.
Your hardware must support your proposed use. For example, you must have 64-bit Windows running on 64-bit hardware in order to operate 64-bit Manifold. You must have enough free space in storage to host the size projects you wish. Available space and other resources must be configured sensibly to match the requirements of projects you wish to undertake. For example, available user TEMP space should be three times the size of the largest data set to be processed. See the Performance Tips topic.
Release 9 and Manifold Viewer run on Windows 10, 8, 7 and Windows Server 20xx editions, both 64 bit and 32 bit. Release 9 explicitly supports Windows 10 with no need to run in a Windows 7 compatibility sandbox within Windows 10. Release 9 will use DirectX12 when run on Windows 10 for improved display performance. Manifold recommends Windows 10 or more recent.
Machines running Release 9 or Manifold Viewer must have the following Microsoft packages installed:
Microsoft .NET 4.0 or greater.
Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 2 or more recent.
Release 9 and Manifold Viewer .exe installation files include C++ Redistributable and will install it automatically if required. Portable installations (packaged as a .zip file) do not include the C++ Redistributable. For links to .NET and Visual C++ Redistributable installations, visit Manifold's System Requirements web page.
The Manifold
ODBC driver is automatically installed when installing Manifold using
a Windows Installer installation package, but it is not automatically
installed when running a portable installation. When using a portable
installation we must install the Manifold driver using the Help - About dialog. We
only need do that once for any given Manifold installation.
If our login does not have Administrator rights, pressing the Update or Remove button to install or uninstall the ODBC driver will launch a dialog that allows us to proceed with Administrator rights.
If the Manifold ODBC driver has not been installed, the Help - About dialog will have the Update button enabled. Press Update.
The ODBC status will immediately switch to Installed, with the button caption changed to Remove. Press OK.
If we want to use ODBC from the 32-bit Manifold package also installed by a 64-bit Manifold installation, we could launch Manifold in 32-bit mode and repeat the above procedure. However, most people who have 64-bit Windows running 64-bit Manifold will not bother to install Manifold ODBC for 32-bit Manifold use, since they only will use 32-bit Manifold interactively to connect to 32-bit Microsoft formats.
Most recent Windows computers will already have Microsoft's C++ Redistributable package already installed. For portable installations, if you do not have a recent C++ Redistributable installed on your computer, you must download and install the appropriate C++ Redistributable to run a portable installation. See Manifold's System Requirements web page to get C++ Redistributable installation packages.
On a 64-bit Windows system install both the 64-bit C++ redistributable, vc_redist.x64.exe (64-bit) and also the 32-bit C++ redistributable, vc_redist.x86.exe (32-bit).
On a 32-bit Windows system install vc_redist.x86.exe (32-bit).
If any of the above is confusing, ask for advice from other users on the georeference.org forum. Do not give up on using Cutting Edge builds (which use only portable installations) because of one-time puzzlement that is easy to dispel.
Manifold uses Microsoft facilities to connect to all Microsoft Office formats, including legacy Office formats such as .db, .html. .mdb, .xls, and .wkx, together with newer Office formats such as .xlsx and .accdb. If Manifold cannot import from or export to such formats, that means the Windows system we are using is missing the necessary facilities. Please see the Microsoft Office Formats - MDB, XLS and Friends topic for a solution.
Release 9 installations include CUDA to enable GPGPU (GPU parallelism). There is no need to download or install other files to turn on GPGPU capability, although of course we do need GPU hardware as discussed in the GPGPU topic. In addition, we also get five scripting languages that are built-in, a side effect of Manfold's use of .NET. Manifold Viewer does not support scripting so it does not provide any scripting languages.
External libraries are loaded using a common service. Libraries that are part of the operating system are loaded from system paths. Other libraries are loaded from both system paths and Manifold paths. The results of loading are reported in the log with successful loads of system libraries reporting nothing, successful loads of non-system libraries reporting the full path of the loaded module (useful when there are multiple modules with the same name) and failed loads report errors both for failed loads of system libraries as well as failed loads of non-system libraries.
See the Scripts topic for important information on scripting.
Five scripting languages are always available for use in every Manifold installation without requiring any additional installation of any kind, because they are automatically available as a result of Microsoft .NET facilities that are required for any Manifold installation.
Two additional languages, IronPython and IronRuby, are automatically supported by the Command Window when they are installed (installation is easy). Three more languages, F#, PerlScript and PythonScript, are supported when they are installed.
C#
JScript
JScript.NET
VB.NET
VBScript
The above always available languages are provide by Microsoft COM/.NET, which are required for Manifold installation.
IronPython
IronRuby
IronPython and IronRuby are supported by the Command Window just like SQL but they are not part of Manifold installations: IronPython and IronRuby are installed separately. See the Example of installing IronPython at the end of the Scripts topic.
In general, we need to install client software or a .dll file on the machine that is running Manifold to connect to databases. IBM DB2, Oracle, and SQL server provide client software as discussed in the installation topics cited in the Databases topic.
To connect to MySQL and PostgreSQL/PostGIS, or to turn on native SQLIte SQL query engine when connecting to GPKG or Spatialite / SQLite, we can download collections of necessary dll files from the Dlls for Popular Open Source DBMS Packages section of the Product Downloads page.
Manifold includes built-in read/write capability for GPKG and Spatialite / SQLite data sources with no need to install any additional dlls.
System memory is cheap and our time is expensive. Manifold is very fast and faster still with more memory. We should load up our computer system with the most memory we can afford, ideally to maximum system RAM. Larger memory is much more important than paying disproportionately more for a slightly faster processor.
TEMP storage space will be used if operations do not fit into memory available. For maximum performance, specify the Windows TEMP location to the fastest local disk drive, for example, a fast SSD drive.
Large disk drives have become very cheap, while human time is getting ever more expensive. Release 9 is designed to happily trade off making files and saved projects larger if that helps to improve performance and to make our work go faster. Data sets often used with Release 9 are huge, with data sets in the tens of gigabytes size being typical. When Release 9 imports and saves such data sets in projects the resulting project files will be even bigger.
Invest in large disk drives that can store terabytes of information. Big disk drives are not only cheaper for the storage they give, they are also faster than smaller disk drives. Disk drives are so cheap we should always have at least two so we can configure RAID mirror storage for an automatic backup if a disk drive fails.
Anybody working with big data is likely to already have a reasonably powerful processor with at least four cores / eight hypercores and more likely eight or more cores. If we can afford it, it doesn't hurt to buy a faster processor with many more cores. Release 9 parallelizes just about everything so if we have more cores Manifold can usually put them to work for better performance.
There is no need to go crazy spending a lot of money to get just a slight increase in performance. Instead of spending twice as much for a processor that has a clock rate only 10% faster than a less extreme version, put the extra money into more system memory and into larger and faster hard disks. It is usually better to buy a cheaper processor that has more cores than a more expensive processor with fewer cores.
Release 9 uses GPUs for massively parallel computation, known as General Purpose GPU or GPGPU. Manifold Viewer does not use GPGPU. GPGPU capability requires installation of an NVIDIA GPU of at least Kepler architectural generation or more recent. Since we must have graphics display in any event it is crazy not to have a GPGPU capable graphics card. No need to overspend on GPU. Virtually any sensibly middle-of-the-road GPGPU card will be fine. For greater discussion of GPGPU use and configuration, see the GPGPU topic.
Why .EXE and not .MSI? - Manifold Release 9 installations that use Windows Installer are .exe files and not the usual .msi files that are often used for Windows Installer installations. An .exe file is used because .exe files allow the installation to perform preparatory steps, such as installing C++ redistributables if required, that cannot be accomplished with an .msi. Once those preparatory steps are accomplished the .exe launches an .msi file that is contained within the .exe so Windows Installer can go to work with that .msi.
Manifold ODBC Driver Version - The version number of the Manifold ODBC driver will be the equivalent of the version number of the Manifold build that installed it. For example, if we have installed the Manifold ODBC driver using Manifold System Release 9 Edge build 9.0.169.7, the Manifold ODBC driver will be identified as version number 9.00.169.07. Manifold ODBC drivers installed by Cutting Edge builds will be identified as Manifold 9.0 Project Driver (Experimental) while Manifold ODBC drivers installed by Base builds will be identified as Manifold 9.0 Project Driver.
Legacy Builds - Manifold download pages provide current builds. Newer builds fix bugs so it is important to work with the latest build. If for some wild and crazy reason you think that in the future you will not want to upgrade to the latest build, make sure to save the installation file for whatever build has been installed, so that if a re-install is necessary you can work with an old and obsolete build instead of whatever wonderful new build is the current release. Note that tech support is available only for current builds, and not for obsolete legacy builds.