So I'm installing the new version of Visual Studio. For those of you fortunate enough not to be familiar with this fine piece of software, suffice it to say that it is what puts together the lion's share of every other program on Windows, and is simply a joy to use.
So if you're gonna install the new version, you have to uninstall the old one first, right? That should be simple enough, using the uninstaller and junk. I went through the motions, removing .NET versions 1.1, 2.0, 2.0beta, J# somethingorother, and half a dozen other add-ons that might get in the way of the new one. Now it comes time to remove Visual Studio itself.
So I click in the clicking place, and all is well. This leads me to the setup wizard, shown below. I, being a dilligent user, again click where I'm told (remember i'm uninstalling now).
With me? Here's the fun part. Instead of launching the uninstaller, it sends me to the Copy Utility screen. Note how (a) I'm not copying anything now, (b) the Copy Utility is not part of Visual Studio, even in the most inclusive sense, (c) no trace of an uninstaller can be seen anywhere, and (d) there's really nothing I can do here.
Now, ordinarily I'm a forgiving enough user. You really have to be if you want to use any software from these people. What I don't get is how they expect me to purchase their new products if the uninstaller for the old version links me to a dialog box from another completely unrelated application, which never worked to begin with. Visual Studio is solely responsible, remember, for building/assembling/linking/compiling/otherwise tacking together probably 90% of the software being developed comercially for Windows. How is a poor developer supposed to work with a product that not only can't find its own uninstaller, but, instead of displaying an error to that effect, picks a component it has no business even seeing and launches it?
I guess I'll just put in the new CD and see what happens; maybe it'll miraculously remove the old one, or maybe it'll make things worse. A sane user would just reinstall windows on this poor old machine (if not put it out to pasture), but I'm past that point. It's survived three versions of Windows (not including service packs), and 4 of Linux, so I'm hoping I can do something constructive with it. It's too heavy to be a fly swatter, but it has potential as a paperweight, or even a nut cracker.
So if you're gonna install the new version, you have to uninstall the old one first, right? That should be simple enough, using the uninstaller and junk. I went through the motions, removing .NET versions 1.1, 2.0, 2.0beta, J# somethingorother, and half a dozen other add-ons that might get in the way of the new one. Now it comes time to remove Visual Studio itself.
So I click in the clicking place, and all is well. This leads me to the setup wizard, shown below. I, being a dilligent user, again click where I'm told (remember i'm uninstalling now).
With me? Here's the fun part. Instead of launching the uninstaller, it sends me to the Copy Utility screen. Note how (a) I'm not copying anything now, (b) the Copy Utility is not part of Visual Studio, even in the most inclusive sense, (c) no trace of an uninstaller can be seen anywhere, and (d) there's really nothing I can do here.
I guess I'll just put in the new CD and see what happens; maybe it'll miraculously remove the old one, or maybe it'll make things worse. A sane user would just reinstall windows on this poor old machine (if not put it out to pasture), but I'm past that point. It's survived three versions of Windows (not including service packs), and 4 of Linux, so I'm hoping I can do something constructive with it. It's too heavy to be a fly swatter, but it has potential as a paperweight, or even a nut cracker.
