Monday, February 20, 2006
Doing Battle To Uninstall Or Upgrade On Windows Mobile 5
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THOUGHT" @ 12:20 PM
As I wrote a few months ago, the installation process on Windows Mobile 5 has greatly improved over Pocket PC 2003SE and earlier as you always can control the destination file store to install to - either directly on the device or any number of storage cards you may have available. However, the uninstall process, for me at least, is horrible, and upgrading is an even worse process. Here is how it worked for me under Windows Mobile 2003SE.
1: Start|Settings|System|Remove Programs
2: Select the program and tap Remove.
That was it. You might have to soft reset before doing this to ensure the app isn't running, or manually close it with a task killer, but beyond that, very trouble free. Not so Windows Mobile 5. I have had a Windows Mobile 5 device since November. Two in fact, a JasJar and K-Jam. In those four months, I have never successfully upgraded an application and have never had a smooth uninstallation. I always have to soft reset to get an uninstall to work, and even then it doesn't always help. I have the Think Outside Stowaway 4.3 bluetooth driver installed on my K-Jam and it will not come off! The uninstall always fails no matter what I try. 4.4 won't install over it either. For that matter, 4.3 won't install over itself. If fails every single time. So, I have a nice $99 keyboard that is useless to me until Think Outside either gives me the steps to manually remove it (all registry keys, DLL's, etc. that the driver uses) or I hard reset. :evil:
This is not a Think Outside issue though. I have had the same problem with Ilium Software's ListPro and eWallet, Resco's File Explorer and Laridian's Pocket Bible. Apparently Windows Mobile 5 has an upgrade logic that first removes the existing version of the app before installing the new version. I have no clue how effective that is because it never works for me. My upgrade process goes like this.
1: Dock the device and install the upgrade from the desktop.
2: Tell the device to upgrade, answering YES to the "remove previous version" prompt.
3: Answer OK when it fails.
4: Mumble under my breath
5: Undock the device
6: Try the "Remove Programs" utility to remove the app myself.
7: Answer OK when that fails. (more mumbling goes here, usually at a slightly higher decibel level)
8: Soft reset
9: Try "Remove Programs" again. This usually works, but not always, as I discussed above.
10: If #9 worked, dock the device and install the app again from the desktop.
Steps 11-n involve reconfiguring all my preferences for the app, because step 9 removed them all! :roll: It gets worse too. Let's say you have an app that usually is just a CAB file and you just want to install the app on your new device to the storage card. The executable is already there because the storage card either came from a previous device or you have done a hard reset for some reason. The install will fail if you install to the same folder with absolutely no no explanation. It took several tries before I figured out if I manually removed the application .exe file or the folder itself that it would then work.
But wait! There's even more goodness. Resco has this cool little app called "Resco Update" that it puts in the Start|Programs folder. Tap it and it scans your device for all Resco apps, collects version numbers then compares that to what is online and lets you download and install the latest versions. Well, guess what happened the first time I ran it? The "Resco Update" utility itself needed an update. Are you with me here? It downloads, starts to install, tries to remove itself, fails. I have to manually remove it. Now guess what? I have no "Resco Update" on my device to upgrade! Pretty much out of luck until I get back to my desktop. :evil:
It is extremely frustrating. I know I am behind on my free updates too. Resco has a new version of Resco File Explorer that I haven't bothered with because the frustration of steps 1-10 above, plus all of the manual tweaking, just aren't worth it. :? What about you? Is it just me or are others of you with WM5 seeing this?
1: Start|Settings|System|Remove Programs
2: Select the program and tap Remove.
That was it. You might have to soft reset before doing this to ensure the app isn't running, or manually close it with a task killer, but beyond that, very trouble free. Not so Windows Mobile 5. I have had a Windows Mobile 5 device since November. Two in fact, a JasJar and K-Jam. In those four months, I have never successfully upgraded an application and have never had a smooth uninstallation. I always have to soft reset to get an uninstall to work, and even then it doesn't always help. I have the Think Outside Stowaway 4.3 bluetooth driver installed on my K-Jam and it will not come off! The uninstall always fails no matter what I try. 4.4 won't install over it either. For that matter, 4.3 won't install over itself. If fails every single time. So, I have a nice $99 keyboard that is useless to me until Think Outside either gives me the steps to manually remove it (all registry keys, DLL's, etc. that the driver uses) or I hard reset. :evil:
This is not a Think Outside issue though. I have had the same problem with Ilium Software's ListPro and eWallet, Resco's File Explorer and Laridian's Pocket Bible. Apparently Windows Mobile 5 has an upgrade logic that first removes the existing version of the app before installing the new version. I have no clue how effective that is because it never works for me. My upgrade process goes like this.
1: Dock the device and install the upgrade from the desktop.
2: Tell the device to upgrade, answering YES to the "remove previous version" prompt.
3: Answer OK when it fails.
4: Mumble under my breath
5: Undock the device
6: Try the "Remove Programs" utility to remove the app myself.
7: Answer OK when that fails. (more mumbling goes here, usually at a slightly higher decibel level)
8: Soft reset
9: Try "Remove Programs" again. This usually works, but not always, as I discussed above.
10: If #9 worked, dock the device and install the app again from the desktop.
Steps 11-n involve reconfiguring all my preferences for the app, because step 9 removed them all! :roll: It gets worse too. Let's say you have an app that usually is just a CAB file and you just want to install the app on your new device to the storage card. The executable is already there because the storage card either came from a previous device or you have done a hard reset for some reason. The install will fail if you install to the same folder with absolutely no no explanation. It took several tries before I figured out if I manually removed the application .exe file or the folder itself that it would then work.
But wait! There's even more goodness. Resco has this cool little app called "Resco Update" that it puts in the Start|Programs folder. Tap it and it scans your device for all Resco apps, collects version numbers then compares that to what is online and lets you download and install the latest versions. Well, guess what happened the first time I ran it? The "Resco Update" utility itself needed an update. Are you with me here? It downloads, starts to install, tries to remove itself, fails. I have to manually remove it. Now guess what? I have no "Resco Update" on my device to upgrade! Pretty much out of luck until I get back to my desktop. :evil:
It is extremely frustrating. I know I am behind on my free updates too. Resco has a new version of Resco File Explorer that I haven't bothered with because the frustration of steps 1-10 above, plus all of the manual tweaking, just aren't worth it. :? What about you? Is it just me or are others of you with WM5 seeing this?
