Installing 2.9.9.20 on top of 2.9.9.19 does not remove old installation from Windows registry. Installation itself is successful, and 2.9.9.20 runs just fine. However, leaving redundant registry values is not clean. Attached are screenshots of Windows Apps & features panel, and Ashampoo Uninstaller.
I know this happened much earlier in the beta, but thought it had been fixed. Apparently not.
Windows 10 Pro. 10.0.19042 Build 19042.
This is a time-honored Windows feature. Apps cannot fix it.
This is actually not true, Bob. Some installer SDKs have a harder time of it than others, but it is entirely possible to have updating programs that clean up after their previous versions.
To answer the OP, IIRC, Tiho said that fixing installer issues would not make the cut for fixing before 3.0 is released, as it would be somewhat involved, and they have a few installer-related issues to tackle all at once. So this is likely to be the expected behavior for a time yet.
The betas left baggage behind, though, and I’m not a bit surprised.
It’s no biggie. I’ll just revert to manually uninstalling the current software before manually installing any update. I’m sure the devs have bigger fish to fry.
Not sure though why fixing this needs to be “involved”. I use many software products on my Windows 10 system, and none of them exhibit this behavior. Oh well.
Manual uninstall doesn’t always remove everything, but as you say, “no biggie”. Registry entries are annoying, old versions visible in the settings>apps list especially, but they don’t take up enough space to matter.
Well, I’m a nincompoop who hasn’t been bothering to uninstall each version before installing. This time I did uninstall it, only to find every other version was still sitting in the control panel waiting to be removed.
I can see some registry entries, but nothing that is obviously redundant or in need of removal. Is there anything in particular I should bother cleaning out?
I can’t seem to find a way to remove the remaining redundant Scriveners from the Uninstall a Program list in Windows under Apps and Features. modify and uninstall are both greyed out. Can anyone direct me to the correct location in the registry, which I’m otherwise comfortable backing up and editing?
Generally, installation information is in one of these locations:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
There is also data here, but I am not familiar with this key, and the data appears to be very specific:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\Registry First Aid is very good at finding orphans: https://www.registry-first-aid.com/
I have been using it for years, and it’s safer than manually editing.
Sweet! Thanks. The orphans were in Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
There was next to nothing else in them and they’re not in the list now. So awesome sauce. I’ll try out the program suggested though. 
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
Thanks. That did the trick to find the stale Scrivener APP entries.
RFA insisted I turn on recovery point protection, found 1000 invalid entries so far, and seems to be taking a half hour or so to scan the registry. How in Satan’s name could a system be that messed up? I don’t run anything on it but Scrivener and the 15-yrs-dead Microsoft Money program (only for viewing old data).
Some programs write incomplete registry entries that serve their purposes, but do not meet MS standards, so RFA flags them. If you remove those entries, the app typically creates them again. No harm done, but it takes a few runnings of RFA to realize which entries are bogus and which are just incomplete.
Adobe products used to be famous (infamous?) for leaving a bunch of garbage in the registry when one of their apps was uninstalled. Not sure how they are now because I gave up on Adobe, except for Acrobat Reader. The Serif Affinity products are excellent replacements for Adobe, for my needs, and they are not subscription-based.
But I can say that I have not had one deleted-entry registry-related system problem or failure in years of RFA. Just be careful about removing something with the red exclamation point, unless you know it’s safe to remove.
The iObit Uninstaller is another product that will clean the registry, but it reminded me of the teenage cousin who’s always trying to impress with what they know and what they can do. iObit runs in the background and for me, it was too aggressive and annoying.
An hour and a half later, I’m still scanning (over and over) for invalid keys. The program deleted over 4,000 so far including 68 on the 5th iteration, 13 on the 6th iteration. That didn’t fix everything … just invalid keys. At this point, there are still TWO Scrivener 1 icons in Settings->Apps. One of them claims to have been installed today; it wasn’t. Sigh … I do hate Windows.
How would I check thousands of entries to see if they’re safe to remove?
Click the “Legend” button in the upper right corner of the screen when RFA is either running a scan or has just finished, then look at the bottom three entries in the legend window that appears. They explain what the icons mean, and the program automatically marks for deletion anything in the “Regular” (safe to remove) category, which usually includes the large majority of the entries found.
You can also see “Safety levels (levels of user experience)” in the Help file under “How to use Registry First Aid / Safety levels (levels of user experience).” Help is accessed from the upper right corner of the home screen.
Registry First Aid is very good at finding orphans: https://www.registry-first-aid.com/
I have been using it for years, and it’s safer than manually editing.
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I download this program and ran it. It paused after the first 1000 corrections! This is a new PC. About 2 weeks old with a handful of applications on it. How can there be so many invalid registry entries on an almost vanilla machine. Is this normal for windows?
Same, thank you so much, this was driving me crazy, And now that the full version is out… I don’t have to worry about it!
A safe way to get rid of most Scrivener Beta registry issues is to simply type Control Panel from the Start Menu, and use its Uninstall programs screen, which will list the phantom installations easily to read…
This works, and nicely removes any old versions listed which aren’t active.any more. It will give a message for each of these and ask you for each one. If you miake a mistake and remove the current Scrivener, it’s not going to be a problem – just reinstall when you’re done. Purchase registration won’t be affected even in that case.
The only time I’ve had to use something else was to fix the ‘Scrivener is operating from the wrong folder’ message that mysteriously developed at onw point, even though it wasn’t. Not going to say what I did then, as the registry tool mentioned above would probably be your relative friend, then. I sure wouldn’t want to run it unless you have to, thus this comment to show a nice, clean, safe way.
At least one of the Betas left entries in Settings/Apps for which that did not work. Someone said it works if the program’s uninstaller is present and has a full list of everything it’s supposed to remove.