Is there an option to overwrite the old release when installing a new one?

A new release will show up as a new software, but I am wondering whether there is a way to overwrite the old software, since I do not want two MATLABs on my computer.

Or at least, use all my old configurations, and previously installed toolboxes?

Thanks.

Answer 1

[Catalytic]

No, there is not. You should always manually uninstall any versions you don't want. It is probably a good thing that they make you do this because a one-click overwrite option would be accident-prone, and reinstalling older versions can be very time consuming.

However, it is a good idea to uninstall older versions after installing the new one so that the new version has the opportunity to import your preferences from the previous installation.

[Walter Roberson]

RIght. It is also recommended that you do not uninstall until after you have tested your code in the new release:

• functions that worked before might have been removed
• function options might have been renamed
• new bugs might have been introduced
• you might have been taking advantage of undocumented behaviour that has now changed. This cannot be considered a bug, as using undocumented behaviour is always risky
• math libraries might have been updated, and might now be stricter, or just different. Calculations that used to be on the borderline (high condition numbers) might now give warnings or errors or just different results.

[Xiangbo Meng]

Thanks. I am also wondering whether there are ways to just use all my old settings/configurations, including automatically installing the toolboxes that I already have, the paths I have added, the settings I am using? Because it is really hard to remember all those details.

[Walter Roberson]

If you upgraded from one or two releases back it should automatically copy your settings, and (if I recall correctly) offer to install the Add-Ons. It will not, however, automatically detect which toolboxes out of your licensed toolboxes that you had installed; the installation process will offer to install all of your licensed toolboxes.

Answer 2

[John D'Errico]

I'll admit, I typically have 3 to 6 releases, and usually at the high end of that scale. They are useful to me in case I might want to test something in an old release for a question here.

At the very least, ALWAYS leave the previous release there. In a few rare cases, I find a new release might have some issues on my computer. So just in case, the previous release is just good insurance. Leave it there for at least a few weeks.

A few years back, I wrote a little tool to export my current search path from the old release. Then I'll open the new release, and import the search path. I put that tool on the file exchange.

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/50087-export_search_path?s_tid=ta_fx_results