I just noticed in the installed program list in my Windows 7 OS that two versions of Audacity are listed as installed. They are 2.0.6 and the more recent 2.1.2. I would have thought that the installation of 2.1.2 would have overwritten the earlier version I had installed. Can anyone tell me whether it is safe to uninstall the older version? Thanks.
As I understand it, for Audacity 2.1.1 we changed the instructions in the installer so that we wouldn’t have to manually change the Audacity version number in the installer file at each release time.
This does mean that if installation of 2.1.1 or later overwrites 2.1.0 or earlier, although the files will be overwritten correctly, the Programs and Features entry for the old installation will remain.
I think you’ll find that using the Programs and Features entry to uninstall 2.0.6 will remove both entries from Programs and Features, but you can always use “unins000.exe” in the folder where you have 2.1.2 installed to uninstall 2.1.2.
Alternatively install CCleaner from https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner. It has a “Tools” section to uninstall applications, in which section there is a button to remove an entry without uninstalling.
I also noticed when testing on Windows 7 that every other application I overwrote-installed (such as Avidemux or 7-Zip) had the same problem of leaving the old entry behind in Programs and Features. This did not happen to those applications on Windows 10. So on Windows 7 we might see the same problem even if we tried to force remove old Programs and Features entries for Audacity for the same install path.
Gale
Hi Gale,
Thanks for your prompt reply. I want to be sure I completely understand it.
Your second paragraph suggests that the problem is simply the persistence of an outdated entry in the Programs and Features section of the Win7 Control Panel and not that the older version is still installed along with the new version. Do I understand your sentence correctly?
In your third paragraph I’m not clear on what you are suggesting, because I don’t want to uninstall 2.1.2.
In your fourth paragraph you mention using CCleaner to remove an entry without uninstalling it. I have CCleaner and looked at Tools > Uninstall and saw both the “Uninstall” and “Delete” buttons. I assume the latter is the one that will delete the entry without uninstalling the program. However, I want to uninstall the old version of Audacity (2.0.6), if in fact it is still installed, and not simply clear its entry from the list. However, this takes me back to the question in my initial post: If 2.0.6 is still installed and I uninstall it, will that screw up my installation of 2.1.2? In other words, is the 2.1.2 installation wholly independent of the 2.0.6 installation or does 2.1.2 make use of some parts of the 2.0.6 installation?
As I type this it struck me that I could simply uninstall both and reinstall 2.1.2, but I’m curious about the questions I posed above.
Thanks for your help with all this.
Best regards,
Larry
Yes you understand correctly, assuming that you installed 2.1.2 to the same location as 2.0.6. If you did that there are not two sets of installation files.
I thought you might want to. It is one way to clean up the problem. Uninstall and reinstall 2.1.2.
Yes, “Delete” will remove the Uninstall entry from the Windows Registry and then the item will not appear in Programs and Features. It will not uninstall 2.0.6 if you installed 2.0.6 to a different place than 2.1.2.
If you installed 2.1.2 to the same location as 2.0.6 you do not have an actual installation of 2.0.6.
Yes. That is why I suggested it.
Gale