Upgrading from 11.2 to 11.3

[alogrep 0]

Hi

I have had extremely bad experiences upgrading from one minor version to another.

I have these questions, if anyone is willing to help.

1. if I upgrade from, in this case, 11.2 to 11.3, after upgrading do I need to re-install all 3rd party products and my own packages?

2. Do I need to UNINSTALL the old version, or is it better to NOT uninstall it?

From the windows for the installation I get contradictory suggestions: it first says "you need to uninstall", but then the  NO radio button is checked by default

Edited June 16, 2023 by alogrep

[Achim Kalwa 61]

Hello alogrep,

 

let me answer your 2nd question first:

Quote

2. Do I need to UNINSTALL the old version, or is it better to NOT uninstall it?

From the windows for the installation I get contradictory suggestions: it first says "you need to uninstall", but then the  NO radio button is checked by default

This dialog is somewhat misleading IMHO; read carefully. It tells you that the previous version will be uninstalled if you click "uninstall". The Yes/No-selection in the dialog is about removing stored data from the registry. "No" means "keep all settings", which includes library/search path, toolbar configuration, installed packages and much more. Which leads to your 1st question:

Quote

1. if I upgrade from, in this case, 11.2 to 11.3, after upgrading do I need to re-install all 3rd party products and my own packages?

No. If you decide to keep the registry settings by choosing "no" (see above), all your own and/or 3rd-party components will be availabel in V11.3. This because V11.2 and V11.3 are binary compatible.

 

HTH

 

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

Some people found it helpful to manually uninstall all GetIt packages before the update and re-install them afterwards. The installer seems not to handle that very well by itself.

[Lars Fosdal 1792]

29 minutes ago, Uwe Raabe said:

Some people found it helpful to manually uninstall all GetIt packages before the update and re-install them afterwards. The installer seems not to handle that very well by itself.

I second that.  I had a lot less issues after I started doing upgrades this way.  

[Ian Branch 127]

14 hours ago, Uwe Raabe said:

Some people found it helpful to manually uninstall all GetIt packages before the update and re-install them afterwards. The installer seems not to handle that very well by itself.

I Third that...

[alogrep 0]

QED..

I had no Getit packages.

But after installing 11.3, no the IDE freezes like crazy. Once if I clic File, another if I click Search, at times if i am just moving the cursor around.

Does anybody have an idea on hoiw to get rid of this annoyance?

 

[programmerdelphi2k 237]

@alogrep

 

my prefere is always a "new fresh install", but others using the "updating" as expected... but we know Embarcadero and its bugs... then... you know.

 

can you try my "tutorial" for test if is possible at least run without errors?

https://en.delphipraxis.net/topic/9205-delphi-1023-stack-overflow-error-opening-any-project/?do=findComment&comment=76626

 

any way, I think that is better a new fresh install... at last case!

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

1 hour ago, programmerdelphi2k said:

my prefere is always a "new fresh install", but others using the "updating" as expected

An "Update" from 11.2 to 11.3 is internally an uninstall followed by an install. Unless explicitly told this procedure keeps the registry settings intact as well as the license information. A "new fresh install" may only be possible with a clean machine which has seen no Delphi ever.

 

To me, identifying the actual problem and taking actions to fix that seem a more productive approach to me on the long run. Otherwise we will see people struggling with this forever.

 

BTW, the vast majority had no problems with this update. It is just that we don't hear from them.

[alogrep 0]

Uwe

that "the vast majority had no problems with this update" is of no sonsolation to me. Now it has become completely unworkable.

It freezes all the time, with no apparent pattern.

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

25 minutes ago, alogrep said:

that "the vast majority had no problems with this update" is of no sonsolation to me.

Yes, I know that. My comment was more about a global experience, while the individual case may deviate. Because the failure cases are rare, providing a ready to use solution just lacks the necessary data. I already mentioned the GetIt thing, that helped others. Unfortunately each case seem to be somewhat different.

 

IMHO you have two options now:

1. Either try to investigate the underlying cause of your problems and try to fix them or
2. remove everything and install it from scratch. The depth of the "remove everything" may influence the outcome. If even that doesn't help, there may be something special with your system. If you have the chance to make an installation on a fresh system (f.i. VM) you should try that first.

If you opt for the first option, I suggest to start the IDE with a new registry key. That allows to skip all user specific components and settings, but keeps the all user ones.

[PeterBelow 238]

3 hours ago, alogrep said:

Uwe

that "the vast majority had no problems with this update" is of no sonsolation to me. Now it has become completely unworkable.

It freezes all the time, with no apparent pattern.

I had a few problems with freezeups or slowdown with 11.3 but they all went away after I deleted all entries for design-time packes related to refactoring and the welcome page (which I never used anyway) from the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Embarcadero\BDS\22.0\Known IDE Packages.

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

I customized my Welcome Page to get rid of everything accessing the Internet. That works quite well now.

[programmerdelphi2k 237]

10 hours ago, Uwe Raabe said:

the vast majority had no problems with this update. It is just that we don't hear from them.

@alogrep

As always, opinions are just opinions! And, that's why forums like this exist: to agree, to disagree, to add or subtract the parts that could be!

 

But as we can see, and you are a very old actor and with more experience than me, then, you and I must agree that in a production environment we should not experiment, the most suitable place being a laboratory computer.

 

And, indeed, the RAD installer (at least in the latest editions) tries at all costs to do the right thing, however, everyone knows that it does not do it with flying colors.

 

When trying to uninstall the previous version, the installer just deletes some information and files, and "leaves behind" a lot of important information and files, as is the case of the hidden folders that RAD creates in "ProgramData" and "AppData", in addition to keys in the MSWindows Registry, and this is really the cause of many bugs or inconsistencies in the update to the new version when we confirm: "YES proceed with the uninstallation"!

 

When I said "I prefer a fresh install", I really meant it:

1. uninstall the current version of RAD and reboot the operating system;
2. Delete all RAD keys in the Registry: HCU and HLM Embarcadero keys;
3. Delete all residual folders and files (hidden or not) on disk
4. Delete all environment variables in the "PATH" variable of the operating system;
5. after all this long journey, then yes, I do the "fresh install of the new version of RAD Studio"

Yes, it's a bit of an arduous task, but it saves a lot of hot-headed hours... and since I only do this once with each new edit, so that's ok with me... and without any other hiccups, from Embarcadero-land... everything seems to work as expected... now just re-install the components and get on with life.

 

Of course, in a corporate environment this is not desired! But for every sentence there must be a condemned! Then the team manager will determine the best options... after all we can have a server as the central point of our RAD Studio installation, can't we?

 

Finally, when necessary, we can assemble a new PC and leave it as our laboratory for all the tests we want without jeopardizing production.

 

I HATE WELLCOME PAGES / SVNs 🙂 I delete it from registry !!!

Edited June 19, 2023 by programmerdelphi2k

[tgbs 14]

After Delphi 7, I install every new major version on a new virtual machine. On a second disk (D:) I possibly clone and attach the relevant data for Delphi projects. In the bin folder there is a tool for migrating to a new computer and version. And it has its subtleties, but it works well if Getit packages are not installed.