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Why don't the old versions of software get deleted when updating?

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gkuep1945

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I was looking at all the sofware installed on my pc in the control panel and noted there are multiple versions of software still installed. Why don't old versions get deleted when updating to the newest?
It seems a lot of disk space is wasted with these. Also my start up time is increasing.
An example is my pc has Java versions 6, 7 and 8 installed. Are they all needed? Do they all activate when starting up my pc?

Can I uninstall the older versions? I am attaching a screen capture of what I'm talking about.

Thanks!

Gary.
 

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95Viper

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Most of the Microsoft ones are looked at as updates.
The Java ones... you have to delete the versions you don't want.

There are ways to clean up the listing... manually or by some software.

EDIT: Some is poorly written software that does not clean up after itself, too.
 
MrGenius

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To address the startup speed issue, download autoruns. Use it to decrease startup times by selecting which programs are allowed to run at startup.
 
R-T-B

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MrGenius said:
To address the startup speed issue, download autoruns. Use it to decrease startup times by selecting which programs are allowed to run at startup.
Click to expand...

Isn't that basically what msconfig is for?

This might be a more powerful tool, just curious,
 
FordGT90Concept

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The reason why this happens is because whomever makes the installers aren't keeping the Product GUID the same. When the Product GUID is the same, the Trusted Installer uninstalls the old version before installing the new (or does an in-place upgrade if capable).

In the case of Java, I would recommend uninstalling all versions of it then downloading the latest version from Java.com. The only time you shouldn't do this is if you have Java software that requires a specific version or you've made shortcuts that point directly at one version of Java.

Unfortunately, all those C++ redistributables are necessary. The program that installed them require that version (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, etc.) and they are not backwards compatible. If a program requests, say, version 8, it has to be installed on the system for the program to work. Additionally, 64-bit systems will often have the 64-bit and 32-bit redistributables installed.
 
rtwjunkie

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In addition to the above advice, Java makes a java specific cleaner to completely remove old versions of it off your PC. It's on their website with the other downloads.
 
MrGenius

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R-T-B said:
Isn't that basically what msconfig is for?

This might be a more powerful tool, just curious,
Click to expand...
Keywords: "basically" and "more powerful tool".
 
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msconfig does not remove anything msconfig is just for telling some programs and files not to run when computer is starting up.
 
FordGT90Concept

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msconfig is a glorified registry editor.
 
qubit

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FordGT90Concept said:
The reason why this happens is because whomever makes the installers aren't keeping the Product GUID the same. When the Product GUID is the same, the Trusted Installer uninstalls the old version before installing the new (or does an in-place upgrade if capable).

In the case of Java, I would recommend uninstalling all versions of it then downloading the latest version from Java.com. The only time you shouldn't do this is if you have Java software that requires a specific version or you've made shortcuts that point directly at one version of Java.

Unfortunately, all those C++ redistributables are necessary. The program that installed them require that version (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, etc.) and they are not backwards compatible. If a program requests, say, version 8, it has to be installed on the system for the program to work. Additionally, 64-bit systems will often have the 64-bit and 32-bit redistributables installed.
Click to expand...
I was wondering about all those C++ redistributables. Thanks matey. :)

Now, to elaborate on those different GUIDs, it's not necessarily about right or wrong, just a matter of what the programmer wants to achieve. If the upgrade is meant to replace the old version then the GUID should be the same. If it's changed then it's wrong. Now, if the intention is to run old and new programs side by side, then it makes sense to have different GUIDs.
 
FordGT90Concept

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Yes, which appears to be the case with both C++ redists and Java 6, 7, 8.

It should be noted that .NET Framework 5.0 is backwards compatible to 2.0; 1.1 is backwards compatible with 1.0.
 
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