The automatic installation through the itch.io desktop app doesn't seem to work. Ends up with some errors when unpacking.

There's an itch.io desktop app? I guess I'll download it and check out what's going on. It's probably windows defender freaking out that the game is a virus because it has no data on this .exe file.

its because the app doesn't like rar files 50% of the time
just use the site

I changed version 1.0.1 to a .zip file, maybe that will fix it.

Same problem with 1.1

Yup, 1.1 doesn't install through the app as either an update to 1.01 or by itself.