Audacity Forum

While doing some computer maintenance, I noticed that there are two instances of Audacity 2.1.3 with the date 20/04/2017, and version 2.2.2 with the date 31/01/2019 installed on my Windows 64 bit laptop. Why or would my system require both instances to run the application? Initially I uninstalled the older version 2.1.3 with the date 20/04/2017, but that completely uninstalled Audacity from my machine? So I reinstalled the Audacity 2.2.2 executable and now I have both versions listed again in my Settings/App & Features folder? This is somewhat confusing to me, I would expect to see only the 2.2.2 version installed, and not the 2.1.3 version. Can anyone explain this to me, so I can better understand it. I did read both of the release notes for both versions, but that just seemed to confuse me even more.
Also, I also see that there is another newer released version of Audacity 2.3.0 that I have not downloaded or installed as yet. Maybe that would resolve this duplication issue that I discovered in my Settings/App & Features folder? My goal is to only have one install instance to save the the 38.8 MB that the version 2.1.3 Audacity is currently using on my hard-drive.

Thank you.

Windows gets confused if there are two programs installed that have the same name but are in different locations.

I'd suggest that you uninstall all versions of Audacity from your computer, the search carefully for any "Audacity" folders and delete them. By default Audacity is installed in "Program Files (x86)", so ensure that you look there when searching.

When you are sure that you have removed all instances of Audacity from your computer, download the Audacity 2.3.0 installer via the Audacity website: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/
Run the installer to install Audacity.

I do have some files that I want to keep, and I also have a verity of plugins and the LAME MP3 encoder installed. If I uninstall everything, will I loose any or all of that data? Will I need to reinstall everything?

Make backup copies of the plug-ins that you want to keep. You may need to reinstall these (depending on what they are and where they are).

LAME is not likely to be affected, but if necessary you can download it again (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/ins ... ml#winlame)