Updating from 1.8.9-1 to the latest version issues

P

petermars

Active member
Hi, I am using Windows 11
I have sort of asked this before, but just thought i would ask a different way to help get my head around this, sorry about this.
So about a year ago, I installed version 1.8.9-1 on my Z drive, ( I now know this should of been installed on the default C drive )
I can't get the latest version to install, ( well it is not the latest version now, i have downloaded this version a few weeks back ) all i get is the pixinsight logo show up when it is about to do the install and nothing happens.
It just stays like this.
Below is a screen shot on what i am trying to say.
screen shot.JPG

So it looks like i may just need to do a full uninstall.
Is the best way to do this, just to use the Windows uninstall program?
Reading through a few posts, i found the file called %appdata%\Pleiades
What comes up in this folder is two files i guess yo could say
They are:
Pixinsight
Pixinsight License
This is exactly as they are show.
If i click on Pixinsight and click properties, the type of file is: configuration setting (ini)
If i click on Pixinsight License and click properties, the type of file is: file

Should i make a copy of the file Pixinsight and copy it to a USB stick and then delete the Pixinsight file completely from %appdata%\Pleiades
And keep the file Pixinsight License, so in the end, the only file in %appdata%\Pleiades will be Pixinsight License ?

Sorry, just not the best with computers when it comes to things like this.
I just don't want to try and do an uninstall and then find i can't install the latest version still and then have no Pixinsight at all.
If anyone can please help me out with this in nice simple terms for me, it would be appreciated.
Cheers.
 
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When you make a new installation of Pixinsight, the previous installation is uninstalled before the new version is installed.
The blank screen looks like, that PI doesn't find the previous installation, so going through uninstallation through Windows is basically the same like an uninstall/install with Pixinsight..
The two files you mention are normally not uninstalled during the Windows uninstallation, but it is never wrong having a backup of these.
Though, the Pixinight.ini has probably references to your previous run incl. installation path; won't help you a lot after a new installation.

Cheers
Tom
 
Cheers Tom, Appreciate the reply and advice.
I understand what you are saying, But the part about Pixinsight not finding the previous installation, I think Pixinsight must know it is there and there is something that it doesn't like with the old installation as I did install it on another drive not C drive that it is suppose to be on.

My reason for thinking that this may be the case is, if I completely uninstall Pixinisight, then what you said, nothing would change, as when I go to install the current version of Pixinsight it won't be able to find the previous installation because it is no longer there ( if that makes sense ? )

So would I be correct in saying that the best option to hopefully sort all this out and get the new version installed and up an running is to uninstall Pixinsight using he Windows add/remove function, then go into this %appdata%\Pleiades file and after making a copy of the two files in there, delete the file Pixinsight so that the only file left in there is the Pixinsight License
Would this be the best option?
I hope that all makes some sort of sense.
Cheers.
 
Windows add/remove typically runs the application installer/uninstaller, which may or may not work, depending on exactly how you managed to install on a non-standard disk. Your previous posts all describe files without extensions. It is much easier to perform application maintenance if you enable display of file extensions in the Windows file explorer. This will enable you to distinguish, for example, between "pixinsight.exe" and "pixinsight .ico", which will both display as "pixinsight" with your current settings, making it look as though there are two files with the same name.
 
Appreciate the reply,
When i installed Pixinsight, the old version 1.8.9-1 I had the option to install it on a different drive, in my case it was drive Z,
I creted a folder on drive Z and called it Pixinsight.
When i installed it, i selected this folder, so it was installed in the folder named Pixinsight on drive Z
I have just done a search and found out how to enable display of file extensions in the Windows file explorer ( I am not that great with computers )
I get two folders in the %appdata%\Pleiades
One is called Pixinsight.ini
One is called Pixinsight License

So i should just uninstall Pixinsight using the windows 11 add/remove program, then after after making a copy of the two files in %appdata%\Pleiades I should delete the Pixinsight.ini and just keep the Pixinsight License
This should then hopefully allow the latest version of Pixinsight to install?
There has been a few more Pixinsight updates since, so i will download the latest version to install rather than the version that i have been trying to install.
 
petermars said:
then after after making a copy of the two files in %appdata%\Pleiades I should delete the Pixinsight.ini and just keep the Pixinsight License
Click to expand...
You may delete the Pixinsight.ini, it could be a reason why the new installation failed.
The PoixinsightLicense, no need to delete, otherwise you have to copy the file again to %appdata%\Pleiades.

Cheers
Tom
 
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Really appreciate all this advice, cheers.
I will uninstall Pixinsight using windows and delete that Pixinsight.ini file a little latter on today I hope.
Hopefully that will allow the new version to install and be placed in the correct location this this.
 
Hi again,
Well i went in and deleted the Pixinsight.ini file
I went in and removed Pixinsight using the windows add/remove program
Pixinsight shortcut icon was still showing up on the home screen,
The shortcut still worked and opened up Pixinsight, So i went to the Pixinsight folder in z drive and manually just deleted this folder and the shotcut on the home screen
Restarted PC
Tried to install the latest version of Pixinsight and nothing, still get that Pixinsight Icon, Nothing has changed, even let it sit there for 10 minutes
Below is a screen shot of what I am looking at now.
So right now, I have no working version of Pixinsight, not sure what is going on here
I did creat a restore point before i did any of this, so hopefully i can get my old version back if needed.

Screenshot.jpg
 
I found my old version of Pixinsight ( 1.8.9-1 )
I clicked on this to see if it would download and install.
This worked just fine, i let it install it in the default location this time
So I thought i would them go and see if the latest version would download this time, still no good, just get that logo as shown above.
It looks like it is about to install, i get a very quick flash of text, no hope of reading it and then it sits like it is shown.
Not sure what is going on here, or even how to pause the screen in a hope to read the flash of texts
Any advice on what may be going on here, i am all out of ideas now.
 
Well, now comes the time-consuming part.
Open the registry editor, Right-click Start -> Run -> type regedit32.exe (or Search -> Registry Editor).
Hit Ctrl+F (or Edit -> Find) and search for every registry entry of Pixinsight and delete these.
Before that, make a system restore point, just to be safe.

Cheers
Tom
 
Ok, I found the registry editor in Windows 11
I found the edit > find
So what do I actually type in here to find?
Do I just type in pixinsight
I tried just typing in Pixinsight and I just get the one result on the right hand side ( that is if i am looking in the correct spot )
There is also a long list on the left hand side, There is no file or anything about Pixinsight there, I did find 3 files called Pleiades
But there is not a real lot in there, I took a srceen shot just to show where i am at, or if i am even in the right place?
I am not sure if I am suppose to delete the 3 files or not, one appears to be .xisf the other .xosm the other .xpsm
As you can tell, i have no idea what these mean or where to go from here.
Someone suggested turning off Mcafee I just ended up removing this all together and that did fix anything.
Not sure if it is worth trying to turn Windows firewall off just while trying the install, just another thought.


Screenshot 2024-03-24 211531.png
 
Oh, there is probably more to find.
You delete every string which contains Pixinsight, so after delete, press F3 and continue to search.

Cheers
Tom
 
I also suggest that you delete you download of the latest PixInsight version installer and re-download it. This could be a corrupted download.
 
Appreciate all the help and information, I think I am starting to get the hang of this a bit now.
In the registry editor, when I type in Pixinsight in the search, all I am getting is what is shown in the above image, same thing id I type in Pleiades.
I am only getting these 3 folders, from what you are saying, it sounds like there must be many more.
But looking at what i have in the image, there is no more.
Are you saying that I should possibly click on each and every folder, no matter what it is called and check to see if there is any reference to Pixinsight in these?
Just trying to understand all this, i figured it would just be under Pixinsight or Pleiades.

Since I have reinstalled my old version, and this time in the correct default location, Once I delete these files from the registry, should I also be uninstalling the old version again, or leave it as it is and try installing the updated version again, ( i will download it again as recommended also )
 
petermars said:
Appreciate all the help and information, I think I am starting to get the hang of this a bit now.
In the registry editor, when I type in Pixinsight in the search, all I am getting is what is shown in the above image, same thing id I type in Pleiades.
I am only getting these 3 folders, from what you are saying, it sounds like there must be many more.
But looking at what i have in the image, there is no more.
Are you saying that I should possibly click on each and every folder, no matter what it is called and check to see if there is any reference to Pixinsight in these?
Just trying to understand all this, i figured it would just be under Pixinsight or Pleiades.

Since I have reinstalled my old version, and this time in the correct default location, Once I delete these files from the registry, should I also be uninstalling the old version again, or leave it as it is and try installing the updated version again, ( i will download it again as recommended also )
Click to expand...
PI doesn't use the Registry, so the only thing you'll find in there are entries from the Windows installer and file associations. If you delete any installer entries, you probably won't be able to use the Windows uninstall process. But I'm really not sure you have to.
 
Appreciate that bit of advice,
i wasn't too keen on playing around in the registry and there wasn't that much in there.
I am in the process or re downloading the latest version and see if that installs.
Another option i thought about and not even sure if it would work, but i was going to see if I can install the latest version on my astronomy laptop, and if that installs, see if I can just copy that program straight over to me PC
Just seams very odd that this doesn't install even after I completely removed the old version both using windows and manually taking out the program that windows didn't
 
The idea of deleting the registry entries was to create (as nearly as possible) a "clean machine" into which you could install an appropriate version of PI. It was only as a "last resort" since other approaches were not working. If you have reinstalled PI it is better not to mess with the registry.
Your posts are a bit confusing because of some terminology.
In post #5:
petermars said:
I get two folders in the %appdata%\Pleiades
One is called Pixinsight.ini
One is called Pixinsight License
Click to expand...
Conventionally, "%appdata%\Pleiades" is a folder (a container for files), and "Pixinsight.ini" and "PixinsightLicence" are files.
In post #15:
petermars said:
In the registry editor, when I type in Pixinsight in the search, all I am getting is what is shown in the above image, same thing id I type in Pleiades.
I am only getting these 3 folders, from what you are saying, it sounds like there must be many more.
Click to expand...
If the "above image" is the screenshot of the registry in post #12, the yellow folder symbols in the left hand column are conventionally called keys.
Each key may have one or more values associated with it, each of which typically has a name and some associated data (shown in the right hand column). When you do a search (Ctrl-F) in the registry, you can search for a string in any combination of the key, name or data fields. The search will return the first match. if you then hit the F3 key, it will search for another match. In my registry there are dozens of occurrences of the string "pixinsight".
Since PixInsigh itself does not (to my knowledge) use the windows registry, these entries are all created by Windows, or the PixInsight Windows installer. I would hope that you can resolve your problems without editing the registry - this should be a last resort.
 
Appreciate the input,
Yes, i have to apologies for my terminology, as I mentioned, Working with Pcs is not something that I am familiar with or even know much about let alone the correct terminology for the different parts, sorry for this.
I think I may be best to leave the registry alone due to my limited knowledge with all this.
i did download a fresh version of Pixinsight and still no change, there must be something either very obvious going on that I haven't found or something that is just out of my range to fix.
It is looking like I may just have to stay with the old version 1.8.9-1 A bit disappointing as there were a few scripts that I wanted to add and they are only available for the 1.8.9-2 version.

I am not sure if I put the new version on my imaging laptop and then copy that file from my laptop over to my PC weather that would work or not.
I am guessing most likely not, but that was my next line of thinking.
 
petermars said:
Appreciate the input,
Yes, i have to apologies for my terminology, as I mentioned, Working with Pcs is not something that I am familiar with or even know much about let alone the correct terminology for the different parts, sorry for this.
I think I may be best to leave the registry alone due to my limited knowledge with all this.
i did download a fresh version of Pixinsight and still no change, there must be something either very obvious going on that I haven't found or something that is just out of my range to fix.
It is looking like I may just have to stay with the old version 1.8.9-1 A bit disappointing as there were a few scripts that I wanted to add and they are only available for the 1.8.9-2 version.

I am not sure if I put the new version on my imaging laptop and then copy that file from my laptop over to my PC weather that would work or not.
I am guessing most likely not, but that was my next line of thinking.
Click to expand...
The fact that there aren't DLL registrations in the Registry suggests that PI doesn't write any system files. That is, all of its libraries are self-contained in its execution path. If so, you can probably do what you suggest. I don't think you can really hurt anything by trying.

You'll also want to make sure that you create an %appdata%\Pleiades\ folder an place the license file in it before you try running the transplanted PI the first time.
 
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