Background

Some time ago I purchased a number of courses from Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop web site. I use Windows PCs so I downloaded the course material using the supplied Windows software which was originally created by LeapingBrain. LeapingBrain appear to now be called Platform Purple. I am very unimpressed by their software and response to my support call. More on that later.

The Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop courses I purchased were actually very good indeed. They were all by Tom Feldmann and all related to Delta Blues slide guitar. I have no complaints about course content which is excellent.

Anyway, after a break of some time (during which I rebuilt my PC) I decided to reengage with the courses again. It appears I had previously downloaded the course files to my E-drive for offline use. So, having all the course material I just needed to reinstall the software and to point it at the existing catalog. Or so I thought.

On reinstalling the Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop software (version 2.9.3) for Windows I discovered there was no way of pointing the software to a custom catalog location. There certainly isn’t anything under Settings that allows this.

After some poking around I found that the software putts all of its files in the following location:

C:\Users\<user name here>\AppData\Roaming\LeapingBrain

In that folder there’s a ‘catalog’ sub folder that contains the downloaded course files. Here’s my catalog folder with a few courses included:

The individual course folders can run around 2GB each.

Here’s the issue: if you have a drive with limited space (e.g. an SSD running the OS etc.) then you probably don’t want that drive filled up with video files and would like to save them somewhere else.

Unfortunately the software offers no way of letting you store those files in a different location for offline use. Useless.

Video files not playable other than with the supplied software

I thought I might be able to move the files to a different location and use a video player to watch them. No such luck. The video files are not playable with conventional video software.

I assume the video files are rights protected in some way. I HATE that. I’ve paid for the material so why should I be linked to either their clumsy web site for online playing (which assumes an internet connection) or their rather utilitarian software for offline use? In the case of their software I am now unable to download the files for fear of filling up my C-drive. Fail.

Support ticket not completed

So, I raised a support ticket.

Hi. How can I change the location of the catalog (video) files in the Windows App? I can’t find anything under Settings.

I got a quick response (within a few minutes) which was good but it was the usual support team fob off: install the latest software.

Hi,

Sorry for the trouble. Can you please try to install the latest version of the app from the link below?

go.platformpurple.com/library?e=guitarworkshop

Yeah… Did you even read what the question was?

I replied that I had already done that. The response was “We will look into the issue and get back to you as soon as possible.”

After several days I have not received any update. I think we all know the answer to the question anyway. There is no way of pointing the software at a new location for the catalog. Deal breaker.

Let’s put in a hack to fix the issue

So, here’s my fix to put the catalog files in a different location.

Beware! This is my solution. If you don’t know what you’re doing it’s probably a good idea not to bother with this. On your head be it.

The solution is to create a symbolic link (a Junction actually) between the folder location expected by the software to the new location. I did that using the mklink utility in Windows.

This is what I did.

Step 1

I renamed the LeapingBrain folder I had on my E-drive and which contained the course files to LeapingBrain.bak to keep it safe. I then moved the C:\Users\<user name here>\AppData\Roaming\LeapingBrain folder to its new location on the E-drive.

Step 2

I then copied the course folders – and only the course folders – from the original LeapingBrian.bak catalog folder to the new LeapingBrain catalog folder on the E-drive.

Note that I found the new LeapingBrain folder contained a variety of new files and folders that weren’t in the original so copying just the course folders meant all the new LeapingBrain folders and files were left intact.

Step 3

Next I created a link from the original folder location to the new one by running this command in a command prompt:

mklink /J C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\LeapingBrain "E:\Video\Guitar Lessons\Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop\LeapingBrain"

Note that the file paths will vary on your system. Again, if you don’t know what you’re doing leave well alone and don’t try.

So now, as far as the operating system is concerned, any requests for C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\LeapingBrain will be routed to the new location. By doing this the software won’t know the difference.

Step 4

Time to test the software.

Result! My course files were all in place and worked perfectly.

Conclusion

I’m not going to buy any more courses from Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop. That’s a shame because the course content is great. It’s the delivery that sucks.

Clunky web site, clunky software, protected video files, etc. all reasons not to go back.