Add interactive "first use" workflow

[zooba]

On first install (or otherwise detected "first use"), we should lead the user through a couple of pre-troubleshooting steps to try and fix configuration issues before they encounter them for real. This should include:

• warn if relevant app aliases aren't enabled
• warn about existing installs
• warn about existing py.exe launcher
• offer to create user config to preserve default version or disable auto-installs
• ask to install first version
• ...?

[zooba]

If we detect an existing configuration file or managed install, we can probably skip this entirely and assume the user has already done it once.

[AA-Turner]

Blue-sky thinking: ask the user if they want the tool to replace their legacy versions with pymanager installations, do all of the registry clean up, etc

Possibly offer to uninstall the py launcher

Perform as much registry clean-up as is practicable

ask to install first version

Would this be choosing the version? I thought the default Python was installed by default / bundled / etc

[zooba]

Would this be choosing the version?

I'm thinking of a "y/n", possibly with a note that you can choose no and then py install <whatever you want> (and more importantly, py list --online to find out what you might be able to get).

ask the user if they want the tool to replace their legacy versions with pymanager installations, do all of the registry clean up, etc

Possibly, but running other app's uninstallers is not going to be reliable. It's also not going to be reliable for users who run them manually, but at least we then don't get the blame for the failure (and we also won't trigger any new circumstances that may result in a failure - manual uninstall is pretty well tested already).

Possibly offer to uninstall the py launcher

Certainly warn that it's there, but I think we'd still tell users to uninstall it themselves, just in case it was installed with admin privileges.

[zooba]

FTR, here's my current version of the "first launch" (exactly what is shown depends on what isn't configured properly here - my aliases are fine, so this is probably the first prompt that most people would see).

And here's the end of the experience. I'm not thrilled that the py help output is bigger than the default terminal size, but at least it looks like you should scroll up. The prompt to open the docs is mainly to keep the page open, since as soon as I dismiss this it'll all close.

(A later update dropped the "Global options" from here and simplified the text a little, so it's shorter and clearer now.)

[zooba]

No doubt we'll change and improve this over time, but I want to get a release out for feedback.

I'm actually confident enough in it to release with an auto-update, which shouldn't actually show for anyone immediately, but I guess we'll find out!

[AA-Turner]

Manually uninstalling & reinstalling to test out the flow. A few notes:

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The settings app opens to the "Advanced app settings" page, not "App execution aliases". If the latter as a deep link isn't possible, can we cut down the wall of text that gets printed, or wait for another prompt etc? I had to scroll back to see the advice that is output:

Screenshots

I think it would also be useful to explicitly mention that it's the "(default)" aliases that need enabling, I think both @pfmoore and I were caught by this briefly at one point or another.

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The "checks completed" is a bit mysterious, it might be useful to say what has been checked, like when explicitly running py install --configure?

Screenshot

When launching pymanager from the Start Menu, only the help message is shown, with nothing about the checks, contrary to the first-use message.

Screenshot


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A

[zooba]

If the latter as a deep link isn't possible, can we cut down the wall of text that gets printed, or wait for another prompt etc?

I'm pretty sure it's as deep as possible (without an update to the settings app), and I dug around the sources a little bit, even though I knew I probably couldn't use something there if it wasn't publicly documented. Ended up going with the publicly documented bit.

Most of the wall of text prior to accepting the prompt are the instructions you needed. The text that comes after the prompt is much the same as what came before, and it already clearly says "labelled Python (default) and Python install manager".

I think you probably just fell victim to reading something and thinking it didn't actually apply to you at first? Which is my main concern with this flow, but there's a limit to how many times I can repeat something to convince you it applies to you (turns out 3 isn't enough 😉 ).

When launching pymanager from the Start Menu, only the help message is shown, with nothing about the checks, contrary to the first-use message.

Huh, this is weird. New issue?