Re: Windows binaries and installer fixes for 30.0.93

[Francis Wright <f.j.wright@live.co.uk>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4524 bytes --]

Hi Corwin

Thanks for working on this. The "greedy uninstaller" was a bit of a pain. I tried your installer at https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_2-installer.exe
and the associated uninstaller seems to work correctly, i.e. it only uninstalls emacs-30.0.93, which is great. I didn't notice any of the other issues you listed.

However, I did notice a couple of problems. Firstly, Windows pops up a warning from Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which is not a new problem and is easy to work around. Secondly, the installer did not install a shortcut folder. On the Choose Start Menu Folder dialogue, Emacs-30.0.93 was pre-selected, and I ensured that Do not create shortcuts was not selected. The only button available was the Close button, which I clicked. A shortcut for Emacs itself was installed but not the shortcut to the folder containing Emacs and the uninstaller. (I can add the folder shortcut by hand.)

Best wishes,
Francis

________________________________
From: help-emacs-windows-bounces+f.j.wright=live.co.uk@gnu.org <help-emacs-windows-bounces+f.j.wright=live.co.uk@gnu.org> on behalf of Corwin Brust <corwin@bru.st>
Sent: 21 December 2024 5:44 PM
To: Emacs developers <emacs-devel@gnu.org>
Subject: Windows binaries and installer fixes for 30.0.93

I have posted binaries created from the 30.0.93 (pretest #3) tarball
to the alpha FTP site, here:

https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/pretest/windows/emacs-30/?C=M;O=D

Additionally, there are some "patched" versions which are only from my
personal site so far.  The above link should be good for anyone
wishing to try out pre-compiled binaries for Emacs 30.1 using the
latest pretest (#3).   The rest of this email is about helping me test
pending changes to the script that creates the executable
self-installer for Emacs on Windows.

Below are links to some additional ("patched") versions of the Windows
installer.  Each of these was created by applying patches (or, in one
case, replacing a BPM used only by the Windows installer) starting
from the released sources provided in the 30.0.93 prerelease tarball
that was published this week.

The patches I've applied have been "sitting ready" for most of 2024;
they applied cleanly and appear to work correctly from my end.  It
would be great if others could confirm they work well; there are a
number of long-standing bugs with the Windows executable
self-installer it would be good to have closed.

In reality only #1 below needs your testing efforts; the others are
provided to help narrow down which patch is causing any trouble we do
find.

Here, in descending order of priority for testing, are the patched
installers I have created along with the associated bugs reports each
attempts to resolve:

1. resolves each item below plus set a unique name for each version's
uninstaller (more work on 68756 in addition to #3, below).  Try this
one first/only; work down the list if you find issues that didn't
exist installing the released 29.4 binary installer.

https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_2-installer.exe

2. fix confusing installer verbage (don't require users to "accept"
the GPL to install Emacs)

https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_bug67667-installer.exe
https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=67667

3. fix installer splash image (badly converted, aspect ratio is incorrect)

https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=70538
(no sep build of the installer for this one but the fixed splash.bpm
is rolled into those above)

4. do not delete all installed versions of Emacs when running
uninstaller (this patch is incorporated into all of the above linked
patched installer versions)

https://corwin.bru.st/emacs-30/emacs-30.0.93_bug68756-installer.exe
https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=68756#19

This last item is the critical one to test; since all of the modified
installer versions contain the patch for this issue, these testing
instructions will work for any of 1-4, above.  To test that the
"greedy uninstaller" issue is resolved:

1. backup your installed Emacs (if any) by making a copy of c:\program
files\emacs
2. install Emacs 29.4 (or any prior GNU published version) using the
executable self-installer
3. install 30.0.93 using one of my patched self-installer versions, (1-4 above)
4. run the 30.0.93 uninstaller created by step #3
5. verify the prior (e.g. 29.4) version of Emacs was not deleted (but
30.0.93 was)

Warm regards,
Corwin


[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 8388 bytes --]