Automatic uninstall of previous musescore installation
When writing out the announcement of the new MuseScore release, I'm always uncertain to add the phrase that uninstalling your current MuseScore installation is advised. At one side, it's good to make sure no surprises arise, but at the other side you know that 95% of the people won't do it. I have been guilty as well. Also, it might depend from platform whether uninstalling is a good thing to do.
Anyhow, if installing is really the best thing to do, we can't rely on people doing it themselves. Instead the MuseScore installer has to push for it. I encountered this behavior while upgrading VLC from 1.0.3 to 1.1. See the screenshot.
I'm just posting this here since it has been on my mind since quite some time.
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Comments
On windows : http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Auto-uninstall_old_before_installing_new
I know a few versions back there was a problem with two version causing serious conflicts over the preference file/key. I'm not aware of any serious conflicts since then over the preferences file. I use 0.9.6 and 0.9.5 fairly regularly on the same computer.
The most dangerous part of having two versions installed is opening and saving files using an older version of MuseScore when the files were originally created in a newer version of MuseScore (particularly with 0.9.6). We could address this separately (see #6213: Detect file format version and refuse to open incompatible files) although it would take a while before versions without this detection become obsolete.
In this screencast, the author installs MuseScore 0.9.6 while not having uninstalled 0.9.5. While browsing for MuseScore in Program Files, he opens the old musescore directory instead of the new one. Pushing uninstalling 0.9.5 could have avoided this confusion.
+1 for "prompt to uninstall older version"
Another reason why this is good/necessary is that currently if you install 0.9.6, then 1.0, then uninstall 0.9.6, they both install to the same folder by default, so the uninstall of 0.9.6 causes 1.0 to stop working (removes files it expects).
maybe NSIS can help with translation, if it has default verbiage?
As a technical writer, I agree, this is a very good idea. Most apps successfully upgrade themselves when installed to the same folder as a previous version. (Some detect the previous install and show a dialog box allowing the user to upgrade or cancel.) You can't assume that any users will realize they must first install a previous version.
This is now supported with the MSI package
Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.