Reinstalling FTN95

A non-negotiable upgrade of my PC at work forces me to grasp the nettle of reinstalling FTN95. The last full version I have is 4.70; after that point I have a fistful of upgrades and service packs, the most recent being 5.21 (I know this is not the most up-to-date, but I think it's the most up-to-date I am entitled to, now I am no longer paying annual maintenance). My question is: can I install 4.70 and upgrade straight to 5.21, or do I have to go through every step in between, in the right order?

You should be able to install the original version and then upgrade directly to the latest version which is 5.40.

I can only comment on this: I had several problems with this. If I skipped some upgrades I somehow got the personal version in the end. It only worked when I installed all the upgrades. I tried to clean up my registry (at least what I believe was a clean up) and still ended up with the personal edition. And because of the change from Salford to Silverfrost I have both directories. Not that it matters but somehow I prefer to keep my harddrive 'clean'.

(@Paul) Thanks

(@jjgermis) Interesting. If you'd only wanted 5.40 PE you could have got that free from several sources!

I'll see if Mr IT has anything odd to report when he has installed 5.21 over 4.70, and I have given it a test drive.

Shameless cross-threading here: did you ever look again at the 'CHARACTER Assassination' issue I reported? It occurs to me that it may be to do with not using the latest version ...

Yes, I wanted to have a closer look at the 'CHARACTER Assassination'. To the PE: That was the problem - I ended up with the PE and not my /=PE version. It is a bit frustrating to go through all the installations to have the latest one (when installing on a new PC).

It might be that how it should works it different from how it realy works (the installation).

(@Paul) can you garantee that it should work or is it that you think it might work 😃

It is unwise to guarentee anything in this business but I am confident that you can go straight to the latest version. For security you could create a backup of the compiler folder before updating. To my knowledge there is nothing in the registry that could cause a problem.

Gloom I had forgotten about the change of folder name. Last time I managed to avoid that, but I didn't do the re-install this time and I have ended up with both. ISTR that multiple copies of salflibc.dll was always a potential issue. Can v4.70 be uninstalled once v5.21 is installed.

If you uninstall the old version then you may loose the licencing information. Depends if the new installation is a personal edition. If not then the licence may have been copied across. Better contact Silverfrost before uninstalling.

Ater an uninstall a FTN95.ser is left in the directory. Is this the licence? Is so, can this file be copied into the new directory. Or is this to simple?

Yep, it is that simple. It only works with proper licensed installs though. So, for example you could not just download the PE version and copy the file.

I have a proper licensed edition, with v4.70 in one folder and v5.21 in another, because I forgot about the change of folder name in between, so I didn't warn the IT guy doing the reinstall 😦

Each installation has a ftn95.ser file in it. I have checked and they are identical.

Am I right in thinking that there is still a potential issue with two copies of salflibc.dll on the same machine? If so, (sorry for being dense here) can I uninstall v4.70 (or rather, ask Mr IT nicely to do it) without losing the licensing information?

Yes, keep a copy of ftn95.ser and then copy it into whichever directory you want to keep - just in case. You only want one copy of salflibc.

I've got the same annoying issue lately. I misplaced installation disk... it happens...300 program CDs, DVDs, games spreaded in disorder... and can not find it for last several months.

When i installed latest version of FTN95 last summer the PE warning started to appear somehow which i thought i will tolerate for a while until i'll find the licensed FTN95. For sure it is not at work, that i checked twice more or less well, but i was lazy to dig again the entire house, specifically kids rooms, even cars have several CDs, and the result is - i've lost ... let me estimate...50-100 compilations per day, 100-150 days gives me 10,000 runs. Then 3 seconds loss per each run gives 30000 seconds - 8 hours of torture ! The whole day is lost ! Whhhooouuu ! No, i'm going to search again this weekend or will find how to harass the kids to clean everything and may be find the damn disk (experience shows that doing all myself is easier task )

The PE warning really got on my nerves... soon will start yelling at night 😄

With problems of this kind try contacting Silverfrost directly by email.

Quoted from DanRRight

The PE warning really got on my nerves... soon will start yelling at night 😄

Dan: Send an email to ftn95@silverfrost.com with your details and we will send you a new set of codes with links etc.

One more last attempt to find and I probably will, thanks, i know you will help and appreciate this very much.