The second session of Beta testing is open to everyone who tested in the first session. That means that a number of Beta testers will already have the previous version (Beta A SP1) installed on their computer.

With the updates to the installation program, these testers will not need to uninstall the previous version of the Client Tool prior to installing the new version. Instead, this will all be handled by the installation program.

If the installation program detects a previous version of the Client Tool, it will first run the uninstall, and then it will install a new version of the Client Tool. There is no need to use the Add/Remove programs in Windows Control Panel. In fact, you do not want to use that. Instead, let the installation take care of removing the old Client Tool and adding the new.

It should be noted that the data in the database of the previous version will not be maintained during the installation. The new installation will replace the database with a new one that is suited for Beta B.

All of this summarized in a new FAQ filed under the Installation category:

I participated in the first Beta testing session. Will I need to uninstall the Client Tool prior to installing the new version of the Client Tool?

The installation program for the new version of the Client Tool will perform all of the necessary uninstalling of software prior to installing the Beta B version of the Client Tool. Testers should not use the Windows Add/Remove functionality to uninstall the Client Tool or any of its supporting software.

Note, however, that any data in the database cannot be preserved with the new installation. The installation of the new version requires that the Client Tool database be overwritten with an empty database.

Labels: Beta B, FAQ