Forums Feature Suggestions Updating mIRC, making it simpler

I'm just wondering if just the exe for mirc could be released so it'd be easier to update by just copying the new exe over the old one.

Also with mirc7 alerting you of new versions it'd be handy if it could grab the update itself and have an option to restart and replace the exe or wait until you exit/restart.

The installer copies the new exe over the old one, so you can just use that. The beta installer is necessary because it includes an agreement (and warnings) about the beta itself. mIRC versions (non-beta) are not released all that often-- historically every 1-2 years-- so this is not too common an occurrence. I think once the beta period ends you'll find that this problem will simply go away.

I'd like to see an option to simply unpack to a folder instead of install so we get all the files, but can use them without the install process. I personally do not use the installed versions of mirc. I copy the .exe and help files to an already working folder instead.

Run the mIRC beta installer. Uncheck everything except "Program File" when asked what you want to install. At the next screen, uncheck the first three boxes (creating shortcuts and backing up old files) and check the last box (run as portable application).

This will give you exactly what you want: The only files that will be replaced will be mirc.exe, uninstall.exe, and the defaults folder. Checking "run as portable application" is really just preventing it from making changes to the registry. Since it isn't overwriting your ini file or shortcuts, it will run the same as it did before the upgrade process.

You say you do not want the "installed versions of mIRC", but that doesn't really make sense. The only thing the installer does is create shortcuts and things of that nature, and you can prevent them from happening using the above choices.

that may be true but it's more work than ticking an extract only option on the first page of the installer for instance.

mIRC's installer doesn't do much besides extracting files to begin with, so an "extract only" option wouldn't be very meaningful. You still have to answer what you want to extract, and that can be customized in the installer.

I love how everyone can only give reasons why a suggested feature is useless. At least one guy agrees with me.

My original point still stands, having mirc be able to update itself would rock, it sounds like updates will be more frequent than in the past.

mIRC *does* auto-update itself. The difference is that it runs the installer. A more firefox-like updater might be nice, but I don't agree that updates are likely to be more frequent than in the past. This beta period is something of a special case, and is close to being over.

When people like a suggestion, they say so. When people don't like a suggestion or don't think it will be worth the effort to add, they say that as well. One thing you'll find in this feature suggestion forum is that when people aren't interested, they speak up. It isn't like other forums where you can throw out every single idea you have and no one comments. Keep in mind that all of the comments that are given for each idea, whether for it or against it are useful when Khaled decides what features to add and what order to add them as well as how they should be added when he does add them.

As to your suggestion, I wouldn't mind seeing it have a specific "update" option, but I also don't see why it's needed. It takes me very little time to install mIRC to a "dummy" folder and then copy the files I want over my current installs. And I don't really even have to do that because I could just uncheck everything in the installer, but I prefer not taking the chance of accidentally missing a checkbox and having to reconfigure mIRC or whatever. In any case, it is quick and easy to do it that way, so even if this were added, I think it belongs at the bottom of the to-do list... especially since we only see new versions every year or so.

pball... 99% of ppl agree with you. You'll find that the people whom object to features suggestions really aren't objecting... they just want to disagree simply for the purpose of disagreeing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

The basic point is that the mIRC installer does barely more than just extract files as it is. I think there is some underlying belief that the installer is going to make all sorts of changes on your system that you don't want; but in reality, you can disable every single one of those changes with only a few checkboxes, and there really aren't many of them.

I don't think anyone posting in this thread actually would have any issue with mIRC being released as an EXE. Instead they are just pointing out that this "fear" of running the installer is unwarranted.

I don't have any fear of the installer. I'd just prefer to grab an exe and drop in the folder, knowing nothing else will be written over and no shortcuts will be made since I missed an option in the installer.

In my experience, and I believe this is by default, mIRC creates back-ups of all files that it replaces, when running the installer in any mode.

This has been my expericend too. Wonder if the user looked in backup folder under mirc

There are no accidents. mIRC always backs up all your files into a backup\ folder when performing an install. There's no way to lose data by missing a checkbox.


.. which apparently people just mentioned.

That's not true. One of the checkboxes on the last page of the installer is "Backup Current Files". Unchecking that does prevent mIRC from making any backups, although it's checked by default of course.