In another of a string of Microsoft's monumentally bad designh choices concerning WM5/AS4, they decided that you cannot upgrade software in the old manor anymore. With WM3, you would be able to install a new version over an existing old version and it would work fine, it would simply upgrade.

Now, instead of upgrading, WM5 forces you to uninstall the current version before you "upgrade" to the new one. A dialog actually comes up saying this and if you click cancel, it cancels the entire installation. You have to accept the uninstall before it will proceed to install the new version. Of course, uninstalling in many cases deletes settings and reg numbers as well as databases. Not in all cases, but many. This is supremely annoying.

I know some titles reuqire or recommend an uninstall. But most apps can be upgraded to a new version just fine by installing over the old one.

Now, the question. Is there any way to force WM5 to upgrade and not force us to iuninstall the old app first?

I noticed that too but hasn't really bothered me since pretty much all the apps I've used keeps the settings and regkeys. I understand what you mean though..

I don't know about you guys but I've almost had no software that uninstalled successfully enough to reinstall. Before reinstalling, I have to prune through the file system and find traces of the program that never got deleted before the reinstall will proceed.

It's a huge annoyance and I'm not sure if it's realted to the software not being properly designed for WM5, the phone or just WM5. Annoying, but I'm getting good at it. Well, better at it.

Try a third party app like Memmaid or SKTools. I only uninstall apps using SKTools as it does a way better job than the built in uninstaller..

I have MemMaid. How does SKTools compare in functionality and memory required? Looks to be pretty nice as it seem to have a few more tools than MemMaid.

TIA,

Bob Duckworth

SKTools has more features compared to Memmaid, but might not be as user friendly as Memmaid. I decided to check out SKTools after reading this article. Check it out..

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/foru...hlight=sktools

I've been using Memmaid for quite some time, long before I got my 6700. It's great but does little for the problems I described in my earlier post.

Maybe I shouldn't have suggested Memmaid as I have very little personal experiences with it. I use SKTools and the uninstaller is really good..I usually double check the registry and file system to see if anything is left out but I never find anything.

Good Article with some very useful links. I'll give SKTools a whirl.

Thanks,

Bob Duckworth