It's true! Installations are complicated things!
Not only do they install the various programs and pieces of data onto your computer, but they may also modify the registry, put components into your Windows System folder, but they will also likely generate folders and populate these with control files, read your system information and ascertain whether you need extra components installed to run the software, and on top of all that they have to ensure that they keep compatibility with all your other programs too.
And this can be exacerbated when you consider the number of different currently active Microsoft operating systems - Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 - and then all the different versions of these operating systems - Home, Professional, Ultimate etc - and is that 32 or 64 bit? - the list is practically endless. And then we have to consider server side/client side installation or client side only installations, too. To cover all of these possibilities, installations have to be complicated.
But don't forget the uninstall. This has to deal with all sorts of special cases; not least of these is ensuring that any special controls that this particular piece of software needs are not removed from the computer at uninstall time, just in case another piece of software requires them. And the registry needs clearing up. And then the rest of the files need to removed safely, hopefully leaving you with a system that is totally cleaned of the program that you want to be rid of. I would assume that that wouldn't be Bentley Hevacomp, however!
Some general notes on Installing software:
Modern installations can sometimes attempt to elevate the installer permissions to administrator level, though this isn't always the case. To this end we recommend at all times that if you are installing software, you ensure you are logged onto the computer using an administrator account. A user account with some administrator privileges may not provide enough access to the computer to complete the installation correctly.
We've also found that turning off UAC in Windows Vista, or turning it down to its lowest setting in Windows 7 can help greatly during the installation process. Note that UAC can be found in User/User Accounts in the control panel. We only recommend adjusting these settings during the installation process. They can be set back afterwards.
Once the installation is complete, it may be prudent to reboot your system before running the software. In many cases, an installer will still have some processes to complete before the software should be run and this allows this to happen safely before the software is done.
Some general notes on uninstalling the software:
Unless you are intending to clean up your machine due to lack of space, or because software is not longer used, then we do not recommend uninstalling.
To add a caveat to this; If you have contacted us with a support query, then please wait for our response before embarking on an un-install/reinstall of the software. This can leave your installation in an unsteady state unless done very carefully. If tech support would like you to reinstall the software then they will provide assistance with the correct ways of uninstalling.
However, if you are determined to uninstall software, then you should consider the same criteria as for installation. Log onto the machine as a full administrator and set your UAC accordingly.
Ensuring you use the same account (administrator) for installations/un-installations will ensure that all the components removals are handled correctly for all user accounts on the computer. If you uninstall through 'Dave.Blogs' account, although you installed under an administrator account then you may leave software only partially uninstalled, which would make things tricky if you wished to reinstall later.
We have had a great deal of experience in either writing or support installations over the years. This leads us to this quick check list for handling installations or un-installations.
This should keep your machine running sweetly through any number of installations.
I hope you found this blog post useful!
It would be great, Andreas. However the tech used by the current generation of software relies on COM components, and these require registering. Not to mention licensing control!
I've looked at the X-plane website - and the program is not truly cross platform in that different installers and runtimes are required for whichever O/S you are using.
Of course it would be very nice if a program would not need to write to the registry at all.
Impossible?
No.
X-Plane is one of the (http://www.x-plane.com/). Cross-platform for Windows, Mac and Linux, no registry settings, just run the software and forget everything else.