How do I properly uninstall 1.2.6 before installing 1.3.5?

[ebrodsky5]

I'd like to install 1.3.5 beta, but am worried about my current installation of 1.2.6. I'm on Vista and Audacity does not show up in the Add/Remove Programs area (or whatever it's called in Vista). How do I properly uninstall the earlier version so I don't get in trouble with the new one? Thanks! -- Ellen

[steve]

How do I properly uninstall the earlier version so I don't get in trouble with the new one?

You won't get into trouble, in fact you can leave it installed if you wish.

By default Audacity 1.3.x installs to a different directory to Audacity 1.2.x and uses no registry settings.

If you want to uninstall 1.2.6, just delete the Audacity folder from the Windows Programs directory. It will leave a couple of registry settings behind, but this will not affect Audacity 1.3 or anything else.

When you install Audacity 1.3.5 it will give you the option to open Audacity Projects with Audacity 1.3.5 as the default application. Note that if you open and then save an Audacity 1.2.6 project in Audacity 1.3.5, you will not be able to open it again in Audacity 1.2.6. (Audacity 1.3.x can open 1.2.x projects, but 1.2.x cannot open 1.3.x projects).

[waxcylinder]

If you want to uninstall 1.2.6, just delete the Audacity folder from the Windows Programs directory. It will leave a couple of registry settings behind, but this will not affect Audacity 1.3 or anything else.

Actually it will have some impact on the 1.3 installation - as when 1.3 creates its configuration file (audacity.cfg - which is where 1.3.x stores user's Audacity preferences) - Audacity looks at the 1.2 registry settings for Audacity preferences and copies these into the .cfg file. I believe that one of the reasons the developers decided to do this was to remove the need to re-install or relocate the LAME installation. One thing to note is that this is likely to leave your Audacity temp files folder located under your 1.2 file installation structure.

IIRC somewhere on the forum GaleAndrews posted a thread on how to totally remove the 1.2 registry settings - if you want/need to do that, you should be able to find that by searching the forum)

WC

[steve]

Audacity looks at the 1.2 registry settings for Audacity preferences and copies these into the .cfg file. I believe that one of the reasons the developers decided to do this was to remove the need to re-install or relocate the LAME installation. One thing to note is that this is likely to leave your Audacity temp files folder located under your 1.2 file installation structure.

Thanks for the info on this WC, although when I went from Audacity 1.2.6 to 1.3.3 I did not get any of these effects. Also, removing the audacity.cfg file an installing Audacity 1.3.4 showed no indication that it was taking any settings from the registry, even though I have Audacity 1.2.6 installed.

The registry entries are at: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareAudacity
Just delete this registry key to complete the uninstallation of Audacity 1.2.x
(Note that you should back up the registry or create a restore point before editing the registry)