POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.windows : How to uninstall? Server Time
24 Nov 2024 08:39:14 EST (-0500)
  How to uninstall? (Message 3 to 12 of 34)  
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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 23 Jun 2017 16:43:13
Message: <594d7d61$1@news.povray.org>
On 6/23/2017 3:11 PM, clipka wrote:
> Am 23.06.2017 um 20:28 schrieb Mike Horvath:
>> I have POV-Ray 3.7 and 3.7 beta installed. How do I uninstall them? They
>> do not appear in the 'Programs and Features' list. I also ran the
>> uninstallers in the program directories, but the files remain.
>>
>> Windows 7 x64 Pro
> 
> Sounds like the uninstallers have already run, but unsuccessfully so
> (for unknown reasons). Otherwise, you should find the application listed
> as "POV-Ray for Windows ..."
> 
> If that is the case, try installing again, then uninstalling.
> 

I logged into my administrator account and the programs showed up in the 
list there. I've never encountered this behavior before, where a program 
doesn't appear in "Programs and Features" unless you are logged in as admin.

Mike


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 23 Jun 2017 16:51:37
Message: <594d7f59$1@news.povray.org>
On 6/23/2017 4:43 PM, Mike Horvath wrote:
> On 6/23/2017 3:11 PM, clipka wrote:
>> Am 23.06.2017 um 20:28 schrieb Mike Horvath:
>>> I have POV-Ray 3.7 and 3.7 beta installed. How do I uninstall them? They
>>> do not appear in the 'Programs and Features' list. I also ran the
>>> uninstallers in the program directories, but the files remain.
>>>
>>> Windows 7 x64 Pro
>>
>> Sounds like the uninstallers have already run, but unsuccessfully so
>> (for unknown reasons). Otherwise, you should find the application listed
>> as "POV-Ray for Windows ..."
>>
>> If that is the case, try installing again, then uninstalling.
>>
> 
> I logged into my administrator account and the programs showed up in the 
> list there. I've never encountered this behavior before, where a program 
> doesn't appear in "Programs and Features" unless you are logged in as 
> admin.
> 
> Mike

Next, I tried installing RC1 using my non-admin account, but the 
installation failed when trying to write to "C:\Program 
Files\POV-Ray\v3.7\agpl-3.0.txt". After switching to my admin account, 
the installation completed successfully, but did not copy the Start Menu 
items and assorted include files to my non-admin accounts. Is there no 
way to install POV-Ray for all users?


Mike


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 23 Jun 2017 18:01:43
Message: <594d8fc7@news.povray.org>
Am 23.06.2017 um 22:51 schrieb Mike Horvath:

> Next, I tried installing RC1 using my non-admin account, but the
> installation failed when trying to write to "C:\Program
> Files\POV-Ray\v3.7\agpl-3.0.txt". After switching to my admin account,
> the installation completed successfully, but did not copy the Start Menu
> items and assorted include files to my non-admin accounts. Is there no
> way to install POV-Ray for all users?

No, not really. This is a systematic issue with modern Windows (and any
multi-user system, actually), where technically the user-modifiable
portions of any given program need to be installed for each user
individually.

To my knowledge, running "pvengine.exe /INSTALL" should perform this
step for the current user.

Theoretically there would be a way to "advertise" this step during
installation, i.e. make it known to Windows so that it can automatically
be executed when a user runs POV-Ray for the first time, but that's
tricky to do, and might not be possible with the Nullsoft Installer
System (NSIS) we're using to create the installer.

The alternative would be to let POV-Ray test whether it is being run by
the user for the first time, and in that case perform the step
automatically, but again this needs some time and effort to implement
cleanly.


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 23 Jun 2017 18:34:16
Message: <594d9768$1@news.povray.org>
On 6/23/2017 6:01 PM, clipka wrote:
> Am 23.06.2017 um 22:51 schrieb Mike Horvath:
> 
>> Next, I tried installing RC1 using my non-admin account, but the
>> installation failed when trying to write to "C:\Program
>> Files\POV-Ray\v3.7\agpl-3.0.txt". After switching to my admin account,
>> the installation completed successfully, but did not copy the Start Menu
>> items and assorted include files to my non-admin accounts. Is there no
>> way to install POV-Ray for all users?
> 
> No, not really. This is a systematic issue with modern Windows (and any
> multi-user system, actually), where technically the user-modifiable
> portions of any given program need to be installed for each user
> individually.
> 
> To my knowledge, running "pvengine.exe /INSTALL" should perform this
> step for the current user.
> 
> Theoretically there would be a way to "advertise" this step during
> installation, i.e. make it known to Windows so that it can automatically
> be executed when a user runs POV-Ray for the first time, but that's
> tricky to do, and might not be possible with the Nullsoft Installer
> System (NSIS) we're using to create the installer.
> 
> The alternative would be to let POV-Ray test whether it is being run by
> the user for the first time, and in that case perform the step
> automatically, but again this needs some time and effort to implement
> cleanly.
> 

I ran "pvengine.exe /INSTALL". It indicated "Success!" but did not add 
anything to the Start Menu or copy the include files over.

Alternately, you could put all this stuff in "C:\Users\Public\Documents" 
and "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs". See here:

http://windowsitpro.com/systems-management/q-how-do-i-add-item-start-menu-all-users-windows-7-and-windows-vista

My system has 94 items in the latter folder.

Mike


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 24 Jun 2017 01:44:35
Message: <594dfc43$1@news.povray.org>
Am 24.06.2017 um 00:34 schrieb Mike Horvath:
> On 6/23/2017 6:01 PM, clipka wrote:
...
>> No, not really. This is a systematic issue with modern Windows (and any
>> multi-user system, actually), where technically the user-modifiable
>> portions of any given program need to be installed for each user
>> individually.
...
> Alternately, you could put all this stuff in "C:\Users\Public\Documents"

That, per se, won't cut it: We expect users to modify those files
(that's why they're not residing in the "Program Files" folder in the
first place), so to prevent one user's modification to affect another
user, each needs their own copy.

What we probably should do, instead, is to put all the stuff in
"C:\Users\Default\Documents", and when a user runs POV-Ray for the first
time, copy it from there to the user's own documents folder.

> and "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs". See here:
> 
>
http://windowsitpro.com/systems-management/q-how-do-i-add-item-start-menu-all-users-windows-7-and-windows-vista
> 
> 
> My system has 94 items in the latter folder.

Start Menu is a different matter.


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 28 Jun 2017 05:24:58
Message: <595375ea$1@news.povray.org>
On 6/24/2017 1:44 AM, clipka wrote:
>> and "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs". See here:
>>
>>
http://windowsitpro.com/systems-management/q-how-do-i-add-item-start-menu-all-users-windows-7-and-windows-vista
>>
>>
>> My system has 94 items in the latter folder.
> 
> Start Menu is a different matter.
> 

Why is it a different matter? It is part of the installation process, too.


Mike


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 28 Jun 2017 12:28:10
Message: <5953d91a@news.povray.org>
Am 28.06.2017 um 11:25 schrieb Mike Horvath:
> On 6/24/2017 1:44 AM, clipka wrote:
>>> and "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs". See here:
>>>
>>>
http://windowsitpro.com/systems-management/q-how-do-i-add-item-start-menu-all-users-windows-7-and-windows-vista
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My system has 94 items in the latter folder.
>>
>> Start Menu is a different matter.
>>
> 
> Why is it a different matter? It is part of the installation process, too.

What I mean is, technically it is entirely different from the issue of
installing user-modifiable files.

The start menu is just a bunch of shortcuts, and there /is/ a mechanism
to install such shortcuts for all users (both existing and future).

There is no such thing for actual files a user might tamper with. (And
there can't be, because the start menu mechanism relies on those
shortcuts being static.)


But it doesn't make much sense to offer an "install for all users"
option if that only installs start menu shortcuts without a mechanism to
distribute the actual user-modifiable files to all users, as such an
option would be seriously misleading.


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 28 Jun 2017 14:50:17
Message: <5953fa69@news.povray.org>
On 6/28/2017 12:28 PM, clipka wrote:
> But it doesn't make much sense to offer an "install for all users"
> option if that only installs start menu shortcuts without a mechanism to
> distribute the actual user-modifiable files to all users, as such an
> option would be seriously misleading.
> 

Not informing users that they can't install POV-Ray for non-admin 
accounts is also seriously misleading.


Mike


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 28 Jun 2017 16:30:35
Message: <595411eb$1@news.povray.org>
Am 28.06.2017 um 20:50 schrieb Mike Horvath:
> On 6/28/2017 12:28 PM, clipka wrote:
>> But it doesn't make much sense to offer an "install for all users"
>> option if that only installs start menu shortcuts without a mechanism to
>> distribute the actual user-modifiable files to all users, as such an
>> option would be seriously misleading.
>>
> 
> Not informing users that they can't install POV-Ray for non-admin
> accounts is also seriously misleading.

Did anyone say you can't do /that/?

Just install while logged in with the non-admin account, but choose an
install location to which that user account has write access, e.g.
`%LOCALAPPDATA%/POV-Ray/v3.7`. That should do the trick.


While it may not be standard knowledge how to install software for a
non-admin user, I think it is reasonably fair to expect such knowledge
from anyone using a non-standard Windows installation where they're
deliberately depriving their user account from the possibility of
temporarily elevating their access privileges to admin level.


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From: Mike Horvath
Subject: Re: How to uninstall?
Date: 28 Jun 2017 20:15:22
Message: <5954469a$1@news.povray.org>
On 6/28/2017 4:30 PM, clipka wrote:
> Am 28.06.2017 um 20:50 schrieb Mike Horvath:
>> On 6/28/2017 12:28 PM, clipka wrote:
>>> But it doesn't make much sense to offer an "install for all users"
>>> option if that only installs start menu shortcuts without a mechanism to
>>> distribute the actual user-modifiable files to all users, as such an
>>> option would be seriously misleading.
>>>
>>
>> Not informing users that they can't install POV-Ray for non-admin
>> accounts is also seriously misleading.
> 
> Did anyone say you can't do /that/?
> 
> Just install while logged in with the non-admin account, but choose an
> install location to which that user account has write access, e.g.
> `%LOCALAPPDATA%/POV-Ray/v3.7`. That should do the trick.
> 

The installer doesn't suggest this. It just spawns an error message 
about a text file of all things, and then asks you whether to abort. A 
little hint would be helpful, and might even forestall threads such as 
this one.


> 
> While it may not be standard knowledge how to install software for a
> non-admin user, I think it is reasonably fair to expect such knowledge
> from anyone using a non-standard Windows installation where they're
> deliberately depriving their user account from the possibility of
> temporarily elevating their access privileges to admin level.
> 

Suggesting that a user log in as admin every time just to use a 
non-critical graphics program sounds like a pretty stupid risk to me. 
And going into Control Panel and changing the access level of a person's 
user account just to install or uninstall one piece of software makes 
POV-Ray look like a special snowflake at best, and malware at worst.


Mike


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