207829 - installing newer Moz doesn't remove old keys from Windows registry

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Uri Dor]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030507
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4b) Gecko/20030507

I have kept installing Moz over old versions and now I have lots of old registry
keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla 1.2, 1.2b, 1.3, 1.3b, 1.4a, 1.4b...

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Charles Fenwick]

From Mozilla's Installation Notes:

Install into a new empty directory. Installing on top of previously installed
builds may cause problems.

Comment 2

[Henrik Gemal]

it's shouldn't

if you installed 1.2 into one directory and then 1.4 into another uinstalling 1.4 shouldn't remove 1.2's entries.

Comment 3

[Uri Dor]

I don't know about you guys, but for the regular user, installing over a
previous version sounds like the most reasonable thing to do.
There are regular users out there, you know...

Comment 4

[Sean Su]

Henrik, if Uri was instaling upgrading from all of those mozilla versions
mentions, then the problem sounds correct.  There is not cleanup code for those
keys right now at upgrade.

Uri, did you install the latest version in the same directory as the previous
versions?

Installing ontop of previous versions (called upgrading) is perfectly normal. 
The installer suppoorts this install path, however, you should be aware that if
there are any problems, it is recommended that the previous version be
uninstalled before installing the new version.

I've been trying to cleanup problems arising from upgrading mozilla.  The bug
you are seeing should not cause any harm to the system or mozilla.  It is merely
cosmetic (though not normally seen unless the user uses regedit) right now.

Comment 5

[Uri Dor]

I agree it's a cosmetic bug, but it's still a bug.
And yes, I have been upgrading over previous versions (using the same path)

Comment 6

[Sean Su]

bug 198081 will fix this.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 198081 ***

Comment 7

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915

Contrary to comment #6, this is still happening even though bug #198081 has been
fixed.  Since bug #198081 is now closed, I am reopening this bug, which is not a
duplicate.  

Comment 8

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070802 SeaMonkey/1.1.4

After I installed SeaMonkey 1.1.4, I still found registry keys of the form
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\mozilla.org\GRE\1.8.1.5_2007071618

The GRE for the Windows version of 1.1.4 is 1.8.1.6_2007080216.  (Yes, I also found keys for that.)  

Comment 9

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Seamonkey and Firefox are using a new NSIS based installer. resolving this old bug, please reopen if you still get this with the new installer