The Astute Manager can be customised to how you want to use it. Additional settings are planned, so ensure you stay updated to take advantage of what's on offer!
To access the settings, click on the down facing arrow in the top right of the Astute Manager window, then click on “Settings” (as shown in the screenshot below):
At present, the settings allow you to:
Check current application version number.
If required, send a bug report, automatically including the log report (details on this available on request).
Opt to Auto update.
Opt to Startup with OS (launch at login).
Control which instances of Illustrator are handled by default.
Which versions of Illustrator does Astute Manager support?
Each time the Astute Manager loads, it will detect all available instances of Adobe Illustrator present on your machine and automatically add access to newly installed major Illustrator versions when present.
However, it's possible to add or remove instances of Illustrator that are supported. At present, these can be any or all of:
Illustrator Illustrator 2019 (v23)
Illustrator 2020.2+ (v24.2+)
Illustrator 2021+ (v25.0+)
Illustrator 2022+
Illustrator 2023+
Illustrator 2024+
Each of these versions and instances of Illustrator requires a different version of plugin due to internal changes. Astute Manager takes care of this headache for you!
What to do if you install or remove an instance of Illustrator
Upon changing which versions of Illustrator are installed on your machine, you'll need to let the Astute Manager know. Either quit and restart the Astute Manager or click on the Detect installed Adobe Illustrator versions (1) button found near the bottom of the settings window, followed by Save Custom Settings (2).
For advanced users:
Setting the plugin folder locations manually
Due to the possibility of instances of Illustrator being present on removable drives (not advised!) or using Adobe's relatively unknown preference allowing users to set a custom plugins folder location, you can manually tell Astute Manager where you want a certain version of the plugins to be installed.
To do so, click on the default location text (3) and edit to suit.
Once changed, scroll down and click on the Save Customer Settings (2) button.
After these changes, all future plugin management in the Astute Manager will follow these settings. Note that changing these settings will not automatically remove existing plugin installations – this has to be performed manually.
To reset to default, click on the Set default paths (4) button and then Save Custom Settings (2).
By default, only plugin folders for detected versions of Adobe Illustrator are listed. If you wish to manually specify the installation and folder location of additional versions, disable the Enabled versions only (5) option to reveal all variants.