Install & reinstall, upgrade

[mezcal]

Hello all.

In the process of uninstalling and reinstalling from '11 to '12 I'm getting errors. I've contacted our VAR but so far no luck. The issue is, according to our VAR, that I need to log into a 'higher level administrator account'. They tell me that's it's a permissions issue; I've never had this problem. I followed their direction as follows:

1. I opened up the 'hidden' administrator and logged on

2. Attempted to 'uninstall' but got errors.

3. Attempted to 'upgrade' but got errors.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance to all for your valuable feedback.

SW 2011 SP 4.0
WIN XP SP 3
Dell 380
nVidia FX1400

 

[JMirisola]

What are the errors? If you don't have full admin rights to your computer, you're going to receive errors because SolidWorks can't make changes to the registry that it needs to.
I'm not sure what you mean by the 'hidden' administrator either.

Also, you do not want to upgrade from one version to another. You'll want to do a clean install:

First, go to Start->All Programs->SolidWorks->SolidWorks 20xx->SolidWorks Tools->Copy Settings Wizard and run it. This will create a reg file of your settings so you don’t have to recreate the environment you’re used to. Do the usual add/remove program thing and get rid of SolidWorks. Open up Windows Explorer and do a search for SolidWorks. Be sure to include hidden files and folders. When SolidWorks installs, it dumps some stuff into C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data, which is, generally, a hidden folder. You’ll want to delete any SolidWorks folders on your hard drive, except for ones you created to hold models/assemblies/drawings. Still with me? Good. Now, this next step is not for the faint of heart. If you’re uncomfortable messing around in your registry files, skip down to the next paragraph. Go to Start->Run and type in regedit then hit ‘ok’. This will open up the registry editor. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and delete the any SolidWorks related folders. This may include eDrawings, Dassault Systemes, COSMOS, etc. Do the same in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE. You can also download a cleaning utility, such as ccleaner, to further check the registry and remove dangling .dlls. At this point, you can follow one of two paths. You can reboot or not reboot. I’ve heard various theories on both. Personally, I don’t reboot. More to the point, I tend to forget to reboot. Nonetheless, I haven’t had any issues by not rebooting. Go ahead and install SolidWorks.​

Jeff Mirisola
Director of Engineering
M9 Defense
My Blog

 

[mezcal]

Hey Jeff.

Thanks for your valuable feedback. I have always had full administrator privileges on my PC and have never had an issue with uninstall/reinstall SW. The 'hidden' administrator was recommended by our VAR because I currently have the 'Logon' in my name and not as 'Administrator'. I agree with your suggestion to not upgrade but to uninstall and re-install; I've always done it this way. The issue is that SW will not allow uninstall and hence my attempt to upgrade just to see what would happen. I've sent the attached files to our VAR but have had no luck. I really appreciate your input.

Thanks for your valuable help.

 

[JMirisola]

Ok, I think you're getting a 'read only' error because one of the folders is in use or you have read only access to it. Is this a network install or some portion therein (toolbox)?
If not, make sure that nothing about SolidWorks is running on your system. Also double check that you do, in fact, have write access to all necessary folders. Windows likes to assume it knows best when it comes to security. I've been stung many times by that nifty little feature.
Your VAR should be able to determine the root cause using the files you sent them. If not, they'll send them to SolidWorks Corp. In the mean time, try my suggestions.

Jeff Mirisola
Director of Engineering
M9 Defense
My Blog