Remove Old Cura Version when installing a new version

[fexofenadine]

Application version
All

Platform
Windows 11

Printer
N/A

Reproduction steps

1. Install version 5.1.1
2. Install version 5.2 Beta
3. Look at installed items in Start menu, Add/Remove Programs list, directories in c:\Program Files

Actual results
Upgrading this application on Windows is a nightmare because each installer installs a new package to a new unique directory, and has a new unique package name. It does not clean up previous versions and leaves orphaned files and packages everywhere

Expected results
Installer should not include version numbers to allow in-place upgrades without creating duplicate installs and orphaned items

Project file
N/A

Log file
N/A

Additional information
Could affect installers on other platforms too, I dont have experience with those

[MariMakes]

Hey @fexofenadine,

Welcome to the Ultimaker Cura Github 🚀

The behavior you are describing is actually intended behavior.
Many users prefer running different versions of Cura next to each other.
Especially with the significant slicing engine change, we introduced in Cura 5.0 and the fact our Beta versions potentially have breaking bugs in them.

But you are pointing out correctly that we fail to enable you to remove your old version of Cura when installing a new version. We used to have a feature like that in our installing wizard but this has been removed without providing a proper alternative.

We've added a ticket to the backlog with the intent to improve this.
For internal reference CURA-9707

Thanks for the report! 👍

[dsmaher]

IMHO, the preference to use side-by-side should be an option, and not the default. Or, at the very least patch-level and minor version upgrades should overwrite previous editions, but it is reasonable to default to side-by-side for major upgrades. I can understand when major feature updates occur that you might want different versions, but it is extremely annoying when 5.1.0 and 5.1.1 are different installations even though the updates are minimal, and for many users not even relevant.

I'd also like to point out that the uninstall of older versions also don't clean up after themselves, and "open with" in explorer generally is worthless since it might point to a version that you uninstalled years ago. (since I'm a seasoned developer, I've manually cleaned this up on my machines several times, but it is not for the feint of heart).

Also, with the introduction of winget, the winget upgrade feature should do a complete overwrite of any existing version since that is the expected behavior. Right now, winget upgrade will continually try install the latest version if any previous version also exists on the machine.

Basically CURA does not follow best practice for software upgrades, and this is probably causing more severe problems than the ones it is intending to solve.