Windows XP Uninstall

I've got a variety of SecondLife folders in Program Files from various installs -- some because the particular version created its own folder and others because I intentionally installed to a specified folder name. Some of these are no longer needed at all -- like SecondLifeFirstLookDazzle.

I personally find uninstalling related items in Windows to be somewhat scary -- kind of like in SL "what is going to get messed up from this?".

I want to uninstall some of these versions that are no longer needed, but I don't really want to mess up the other versions and possibly have to re-install them. Also, these various versions seem to all use the same Applications Data area and I don't want to lose that stuff.

Am I safe in just uninstalling certains versions - uninstall that FirstLookDazzle version - and the others will still work properly? Besides making a backup of the Application Data contents, is there any other precaution that you would maybe do?

Thanks

use the uninstallers, as for whatever unofficial client you use, no idea, wrong section, actually, wrong forum.

Yes, there are probably other forums the question can go in, but this one is pretty much the only one that I ever read or use and I know many XP-smart people that are the same way. Even though it is a technical question, it is still a question needing Resident Answer. Personally, I see some of those other forums as just subsets of this one when you need to get into the nitty-gritty of something. I don't actually think this is real deep technical, so thought I would check here first. If I cannot get a satisfactory answer, then I will go ask elsewhere. While the question is a bit technical, it is still far better suited to this forum than some of the threads we have been playing with lately.

BTW - I am not wanting to uninstall any UNOFFICIAL version, I just still have some outdated ones installed because of the way the different test versions install themselves. There is nothing "unofficial" about the FirstLookDazzle version - it was a valid SL release a while back.

Windows is a wacky creature sometimes and the different versions of SL do share some things. I don't want to mess up the 'shared' stuff by uninstalling a few of the older, no longer needed versions.

I've never had a problem with uninstalling various SL clients and keeping others. I think the shared files are like the cache folder which if deleted SL simply builds a new one. I only keep the clients I am using so there have been quite a few uninstalls of older versions with no problems for me.

LittleMe, your best bet would be to just delete the old program folders from the Program Files directory. The viewers use families to distinguish themselves in the registry..ie - First Look, regular, release candidate, etc... Each type shares locations in the registry with the other viewers of that type. So if you uninstall an older windlight first look, any other first look viewer you have installed will have its registry entries erased. Same goes for the main released viewers. Unless you want to uninstall ALL viewers then put back the ones you wanna keep, it's best to just delete the directories manually and skip the uninstallers (leaving the registry alone).

Thanks Dana - that is the kind of Windows wierdness that I have experienced with some installs/uninstalls in the past and was a bit worried about it here.

Excellent question, LittleMe! I too have the same dilema and would appreciate a knowledgeably and detailed answer to this same question! Thanks for asking it!

I always uninstall using the standard uninstaller for each unwanted version of SL. it has never messed up any other version for me so far.

It might not mess it up per se, but it WILL erase the registry info for the newer one if you uninstall the older one of that same type. Go check HKEY Local Machine->Software->Linden Research inc and you'll see that only one entry per type is in there, and that it's the info for the most recent version only. When the uninstaller for the old version goes to that folder to delete what it had written there before, it ends up erasing the info for your newer version instead... Just like it erases your desktop shortcut if you have them named the same. A lot of people have issues related to SL and uninstalling, so the safest choice like was asked, is to leave the registry alone and just delete the installation folder. The other data in Documents and Settings-->User name... where the SL cache is kept doesn't matter because every version shares that location so theres no duplicates.

ahhh, i have my shortcuts renamed to my av names

Ahh...........then you have useless registry entries bogging your computer down. And how many people have "my SL client won't even get me to the log in screen" issues? Could it be related?

I use the Windows uninstaller.......never had a problem. But then I also use a registry cleaner on a regular basis too.

Dana, I'm curious why you'd have multiple versions of the same type of viewer in the first place. I could maybe see it for the main viewer, especially right now, since there are two versions of it that are considered current. But FirstLooks, RC's, and betas? Really? You seriously install each FirstLook viewer to its own folder, rather than just letting the new one overwrite the old one? That seems awfully wasteful to me, not to mention potentially dangerous. Where's the benefit?

I'd highly recommend to anyone that you clean all that old, outdated, junk off your machine once and for all. Just have one version of each viewer type at all times. That's all you ever need.


If you're right that the registry entries and application data are shared between all versions of each viewer type, then it's probably relatively safe to just go ahead and delete the program folders. But I think it's worth mentioning that as a general rule, it's a really bad idea to do stuff like that. Haphazardly deleting program files can lead to all kinds of stability problems in Windows.

If you've got a bunch of versions of the same viewer, the best thing to do to ensure a healthy computer is to uninstall them all, and then reinstall just the one version of each type that you want to keep.



Just for clarification, that's the same cache for each viewer within a given type, not the same cache for all viewers period. If what Dana's saying is true (and I don't know if it is or isn't, since I've never put more than one version of each viewer type on my machine), then all your RC's would share one cache. All your FirstLooks would share a different cache. All your main viewer versions would share a third. And all your beta viewers would share a fourth.

In any case, to get rid of viewers, if you have just one within a type, then absolutely do a proper uninstall. You don't want those registry entries and application data hanging around with no corresponding program. If you've got more than one viewer in a type, then if Dana is right, you can maybe safely just delete the program folders for the ones you don't want. But I wouldn't. Again, the safest thing to do is uninstall the lot, and then reinstall just one within each category. One main viewer, one FirstLook, one RC, one beta. No more.