Old PM versions still in Control Panel after version updates

[MikeA]

PM 4.6.3, running under Windows XP SP2.

Looking in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, I've noticed that there are older versions of Photo Mechanic shown there. They have remained in Add/Remove programs after I've installed updates to PM. Right now I see entries for PM versions 4.5, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2.1, and 4.6.3.

Per advice I've seen here, on updating to newer versions I don't first uninstall the older ones -- I just install over the top of the current one (that is, always in the same directory as before).

If I use the 'remove' feature of Add/Remove programs for the older versions up to and including 4.6.2.1, will there be any ill effect on the current installation (4.6.3) -- either to contents of its directory tree or to its registry entries? My guess is that I'll be removing only old Registry entries but figured I'd best check first.

Does this mean it would be better to uninstall the current version before updating to a newer one? In that case I'd lose my current settings, presets, etc., right? I would want to avoid that if possible (unless there's a "back up all settings at once" sort of command that would preserve all of them for later importing).

[Kirk Baker]

Mike,

PM 4.6.3, running under Windows XP SP2.

Looking in Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, I've noticed that there are older versions of Photo Mechanic shown there. They have remained in Add/Remove programs after I've installed updates to PM. Right now I see entries for PM versions 4.5, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2.1, and 4.6.3.

Per advice I've seen here, on updating to newer versions I don't first uninstall the older ones -- I just install over the top of the current one (that is, always in the same directory as before).

If I use the 'remove' feature of Add/Remove programs for the older versions up to and including 4.6.2.1, will there be any ill effect on the current installation (4.6.3) -- either to contents of its directory tree or to its registry entries? My guess is that I'll be removing only old Registry entries but figured I'd best check first.

Does this mean it would be better to uninstall the current version before updating to a newer one? In that case I'd lose my current settings, presets, etc., right? I would want to avoid that if possible (unless there's a "back up all settings at once" sort of command that would preserve all of them for later importing).

Since you're using 4.6.x, just uninstall all of them and then reinstall 4.6.3 at the end.  All should be fine.

-Kirk

[MikeA]

Since you're using 4.6.x, just uninstall all of them and then reinstall 4.6.3 at the end.  All should be fine.

-Kirk

Thanks, Kirk. Will doing this preserve all current settings? I'm sure it doesn't remove any settings stored in external files entirely outside the PM directory tree, but what of settings files inside that tree or in the Registry?

[Kirk Baker]

Mike,

Since you're using 4.6.x, just uninstall all of them and then reinstall 4.6.3 at the end.  All should be fine.

Thanks, Kirk. Will doing this preserve all current settings? I'm sure it doesn't remove any settings stored in external files entirely outside the PM directory tree, but what of settings files inside that tree or in the Registry?

Registry settings that are important will not be removed.  The PM preferences file will not be removed either.

-Kirk

[MikeA]

I started uninstalling in lowest-to-highest-version-number order.

But uninstalling 4.5 did NOT remove the 4.5 item from the control panel's add/remove programs dialog. Now that cannot be removed because the uninstall.log file cannot be found. The others can't be removed either, for the same reason.

So they're all still there AND the program isn't installed now. How do I remove these now?

(Edit the Registry? Well, I can no longer get either regedit or regedt32 to launch on this machine. I have no clue why. Some months ago, they'd launch. Then one day, neither would launch. No error messages -- it's just that nothing happens. I do have a third-party registry tool that I use for searching the Registry, but I hesitate to use it for manual Registry tweaks.)

[Kirk Baker]

Mike,

I started uninstalling in lowest-to-highest-version-number order.

But uninstalling 4.5 did NOT remove the 4.5 item from the control panel's add/remove programs dialog. Now that cannot be removed because the uninstall.log file cannot be found. The others can't be removed either, for the same reason.

So they're all still there AND the program isn't installed now. How do I remove these now?

(Edit the Registry? Well, I can no longer get either regedit or regedt32 to launch on this machine. I have no clue why. Some months ago, they'd launch. Then one day, neither would launch. No error messages -- it's just that nothing happens. I do have a third-party registry tool that I use for searching the Registry, but I hesitate to use it for manual Registry tweaks.)

Please contact our support folks at 503-547-2888 and they should be able to help you.

-Kirk

[MikeA]

Please contact our support folks at 503-547-2888 and they should be able to help you.

Kirk -- thanks. I got busy enough this week that I couldn't call during working hours. I will try to do it this coming Monday. In the meantime: I used a third-party Registry tool to clean up the Registry as much as possible. The older Photo Mechanic-related items remained in the Registry afterward and their entries are still in the Add/Remove Programs dialog.

I had the 4.6.3 installer here and decided to run it, this time installing into an entirely different directory. Unless you feel this approach will do something harmful: maybe the better strategy is to install each new update in its own directory, verify that all's well, then uninstall the previous version. It'd be a bit of a hassle as each time I'll have to update the scripts that launch PM for me -- the locations will keep changing. But they won't change all that often.

At this point maybe using the Registry cleanup tool to delete all old/"orphaned" Photo Mechanic-related entries would be good enough. But I'll get the tech support people's advice about it first. One 'fatal' error with the Registry could just ruin a guy's whole day...

Thanks,
Mike