Hello all,
Today I noticed that all older versions of scrivener are still installed on my machines, so it seems that every time I am forced to install the latest update by srivener, it actually re-installs from scratch and leaves all older versions intact. Is that correct and I should manually remove the older versions ? Or they show up like that but it’s all incremental and does not use 10 times the space required ?
I am on windows 10.
Thanks.
Not my experience.
I just looked in Apps and Features
I do have a stray B24 listing that is not connected to anything and won’t uninstall, so I will have to remove it by hand.
But since then I have installed every beta over the previous version and it has updated properly.
I would look at your settings or maybe some kind of protection software blocking part of the update process.
I just run Windows Defender protection as it is tested well and doesn’t.add to system clutter.
Same. I’ve been doing the in-version upgrade since early in the beta, and this seemed to get fixed in the 16-17 timeframe if I remember correctly.
My apps & features showed version
.13
.14
.17
.18
.29
.32
.18 and .32 had uninstall buttons available, the rest grayed out.
I uninstalled .v18 which removed v32 as well, so I had to redownload v32 again.
Now I have
v13
v14
v17
v29
v32 (2 of them, one with grayed out uninstall button and one functional)
In Control Panel only v32 shows up.
How can I clean up this?
I’ve had mixed experiences with this over the different betas. Sometimes they install over previous ones, sometimes not. It should be noted, though, that the beta notes always say to uninstall the previous beta before installing a new one.
Windows may be part of the issue.
When I have made small changes in the main uninstall entry Windows will create these ghost entries that only show up in Windows 10 Apps & features
The ghost entries are located in the registry at:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
The ghost entries have three keys
default
then one for name and version (I forget the exact names)
You can delete the entire branch and it will clean out the ghost entries.
This might also be a Windows bug or an issue with how the installer goes at updating the entry. Because I have noticed that if go in and make changes in the main uninstall entry, Windows creates these ghosts itself.
FWIW, if you are using/installing the 64-bit Scrivener, the entries are only going to show up in the following registry area: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
There are multiple keys for each version there, but you can safely delete the old version branches to remove them from the Windows 10 Apps & Features list as well as the Control Panel Programs and Features list.
A much better (safer) idea than fooling with the Registry is to use the ‘old’ Windows Control Panel.
This is still there, and still absolutely necessary for several key tasks.
To get it, just click the Start (window panes) button, and type control p – that will be enough. Then click the Control Panel app offered above.
In the Control Panel, click ‘unstall a program’.
You’ll get a list, and see several entries for Scrivener, likely. Click and uninstall, by right button or the link above.
If you can’t tell which is the latest to skip, uninstall them all. Then re-install the latest Scrivener (run as admin)
This should work just the same for 32 or 64-bit installers.
It will be necessary, unless you first uninstall before installing anew, until Scrivener Central has time to repair this little installer problem. It is the installer, not Windows.
This isn’t an issue I’m having on my current laptop. However, my old laptop (which I stopped using two weeks ago) has six separate installations of the beta in the list of programs, from late September until sometime in November 2019. So I’m guessing that particular issue got fixed late last year.