Why Does SD Central think I have both WB4 and WB5 on my machine?
Cab't the upgrade process be made better?
Sunday, November 13, 2005 by sophiesboy | Discussion: WindowBlinds
I have noticed that, in the Object Desktop download center in Stardock Central, I have a listing for both WB4 (beta) and WB5 (beta).
At the moment they both say that I have WB 4.96[b].003 installed, but I think that this causes a lot of difficulty when trying to upgrade.
With my most recent download of WB5, for quite a while my systray WB icon was saying that I had WB 4.5 installed. I had to go through several uninstalls, reboots, redownloads and reinstalls before I finally got WB5 to be the active program.
For WB 5 users, shouldn't WB 4 simply disappear from the options list?
Or am I supposed to do some unknown (to me) series of uninstalls, deletes and reboots in other areas of the system to get rid of (unwanted) traces of WB 4?
Also given the number of comments I see out there about upgrade problems, is there a reason why the install function for new Stardock programs does not have built into it all the command codes to execute the proper deletes, installs and reboots to complete a correct upgrade the way so many other software programs do?
To use an admittedly obnoxious example, the last time I upgraded Windows Outlook Express over the internet, it was a simple matter of downloading files, hitting the button and letting the program handle the work. No deletes, no uninstalls, no reinstalls. The upgrade process was built into the program. Can't Stardock do this?
Failing such a solution, couldn't the upgraded program from Stardock at least include a text file that tells us what actions to take to accomplish a proper upgrade and reinstall? If nothing else it would cut message board traffic (and bandwidth costs) by a hell of a lot.
Thanks for any comments
At the moment they both say that I have WB 4.96[b].003 installed, but I think that this causes a lot of difficulty when trying to upgrade.
With my most recent download of WB5, for quite a while my systray WB icon was saying that I had WB 4.5 installed. I had to go through several uninstalls, reboots, redownloads and reinstalls before I finally got WB5 to be the active program.
For WB 5 users, shouldn't WB 4 simply disappear from the options list?
Or am I supposed to do some unknown (to me) series of uninstalls, deletes and reboots in other areas of the system to get rid of (unwanted) traces of WB 4?
Also given the number of comments I see out there about upgrade problems, is there a reason why the install function for new Stardock programs does not have built into it all the command codes to execute the proper deletes, installs and reboots to complete a correct upgrade the way so many other software programs do?
To use an admittedly obnoxious example, the last time I upgraded Windows Outlook Express over the internet, it was a simple matter of downloading files, hitting the button and letting the program handle the work. No deletes, no uninstalls, no reinstalls. The upgrade process was built into the program. Can't Stardock do this?
Failing such a solution, couldn't the upgraded program from Stardock at least include a text file that tells us what actions to take to accomplish a proper upgrade and reinstall? If nothing else it would cut message board traffic (and bandwidth costs) by a hell of a lot.
Thanks for any comments
sophiesboy
Reply #2 Sunday, November 13, 2005 2:40 PM
Reply #2 Sunday, November 13, 2005 2:40 PM
No offense, but clearly there are problems. Looking at the message board above (Stardock Support) I see at least 6 posts asking about problems with WB5 and half of those relate directly to install/uninstall problems. Since the screen is showing 20 posts that means that 15% of the posters are having some trouble with install/uninstall.
I may be mistaken, but any business that has a 15% difficulty/failure rate with a product might want to look at ways to improve their procedures.
Simply saying that some people have downloaded successfully is not a good reason to avoid being proactive and solving what seem to be recurring problems faced by a large portion of the customer base.
If there is a simple procedure for avoiding the problems we all seem to be having, don't force us to figure it out AFTER the problem arises, let us know beforehand so that we can avoid the problems. A simple rule of business: "Do it right the first time". That's hard to accomplish when there are pitfalls you are not aware of although other people are.
Let us in on the secret.
I may be mistaken, but any business that has a 15% difficulty/failure rate with a product might want to look at ways to improve their procedures.
Simply saying that some people have downloaded successfully is not a good reason to avoid being proactive and solving what seem to be recurring problems faced by a large portion of the customer base.
If there is a simple procedure for avoiding the problems we all seem to be having, don't force us to figure it out AFTER the problem arises, let us know beforehand so that we can avoid the problems. A simple rule of business: "Do it right the first time". That's hard to accomplish when there are pitfalls you are not aware of although other people are.
Let us in on the secret.
xgman
Reply #3 Wednesday, November 16, 2005 2:36 PM
Reply #3 Wednesday, November 16, 2005 2:36 PM
This seems to have been fixed wth the latest build for me finally. I always previously had to uninstall 5, install 4.6. Uninstall 4.6 and re-sintall 5 with a reboot inbetween each step to get it to work. Now it seems ok finally even though 4.6 still shows omn the list, it shows now finally as not installed period.
Adamness
Reply #4 Thursday, November 17, 2005 6:41 PM
Reply #4 Thursday, November 17, 2005 6:41 PM
Make sure you have 'Show pre-release versions' checked on the bottom of SD central. Otherwise you can't get the beta upgrades.
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Reply #1 Sunday, November 13, 2005 8:47 AM