I need to perform a Clean Install of my Opus 9. I tried once before, but upon restarting Opus was still showing a lot of the settings from the original installation (and did not fix the problem I was trying to fix).
At the same time, I would like to save things like my Favorites, My FTP address book and some of the other settings I have customized so far. For instance, I made it so I can launch any program from a toolbar (painstakingly adding each program as an icon).
What is the procedure for Unistalling Opus9 so that there is no trace of it after it's done and I can go ahead and install a fresh copy?
How can I save my settings? I know I can export some, but that's one of the things not working well (Opus freezes at export). But since man y programs save their preferences in Appdata or other hidden folders, maybe I can restore them from there.
The uninstaller should give you a clean uninstall, deleting all configuration in the process.
If the config backup wizard isn't working, see the two FAQs on backing up your configuration for instructions on how to manually locate the config folder(s) and back them up, and for a detailed description of the different config areas (so you can decide which to restore later).
Thanks. Indeed last time I did a fresh install, many of my settings were left behind. I am not sure why. Some where actually nice to find I didn't have to re-enter everything, like the FTP address book and the favorites, but since it also did not improve the problem I was having I figured something major was left behind and possibly by design to allow folks to install new versions and not lose the preferences.
Anyway, I will try again and this time I am going to look in all the nooks and crannies. Thanks.
Ok, I guess I have become an expert at unistalling Opus. Turns out that Opus leaves a bunch of things behind in the register in various locations. 118 to be precise. I used a third party unistaller.
Also after the unistall even using the third party unistaller, the entirety of appdata/roaming/gpsoftware/Directory Opus preference files are left untouched. So I had to rename the folder in order to get a real clean unistall.
Incredibly, even after all the cleaning I have done, somehow my custom listers I created are present in the new install along with my Favorites and my FTP address book. Who knows where those files are kept?
So these are my conclusions:
The Opus unistaller leaves behind scores of files, preferences and registry entries
Manual intervention is necessary even after using a more detailed uninstaller, but it's pretty easy to rename the folders in question.
Even after all that, some settings survive an unistall.
Thank you for all the help. I have finally managed to fix my issue.
Sounds like the uninstaller flat-out isn't working (unless the config-deleting behaviour has changed and I didn't notice).
Using third-party uninstallers isn't recommended; they might break the normal installer. Maybe that's what went wrong? We've seen people have problems in the past because they used tools like that instead of installing/unistalling Opus normally. (I forget the details or which tools it was, though.)
Note that the uninstaller needs access to the config files to delete them. If it's run in a context/account where that isn't possible then it will leave them. (That usually only affects multi-user machines, though.)
Actually, this was the first time I used a third party uninstaller. The way this one works, it first uses the regular program uninstaller. Once that's done, it displays a number of files, folders and registry entries that the uninstaller left behind. You then have a choice to let them be, have the program delete them (by checkbox) or go clean them manually.
I choose the manual cleaning and what I did I actually renamed the folders left behind. For the registry I cleaned them manually as well because I didn't trust the program would clean those and not touch anything else (Any that didn't have "opus" in t"/appdata/roaming/gpsoftware/Directory Opus" Directory was left behind in all its glory.
That one I just renamed to "Directory Opus-OLD" and then I restarted.
After installing a fresh copy of Opus, I checked what was left behind from the old installation and it was my "Favorites", my "FTP Address book" and, amazingly, my custom Styles. Everything else was brand new, including toolbars and such.
Then I went to appdata/roaming and I started renaming every single folder in Directory Opus under roaming and bringing in, one by one, my old folders. Each time I tested all the things that had gone wrong before.
The result was that I now have pretty much the same settings I had before with the difference that Opus no longer crashes continuously and the Search feature works without freezing the lister.
Now I have also zipped every single folder and I kept a copy so that if it starts to behave badly, I can substitute my backup and hope that the problems was some corruption in those folders. If not, I'll have to restart from scratch but by now I am an expert at it.
I still would like to know how I missed the listers styles, the ftp and the favorites, but I am actually thrilled I still have them and I don't have to enter them again.
Again, I am just happy I have the Opus that impressed me so much when I installed the demo. How and why is no longer important since I have the best Explorer replacement in the universe working.