17.00.66 Weirdness

[TedM]

I updated from 17.00.64 to 17.00.66 using "Check for Updates." The update appears to have installed correctly. When I restarted Take Command, I got this error message:

Error on line 1 of C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\JPSoft\TCMD.INI:
Invalid item name "Key=No"

It also looked like it ignored my TCSTART.BAT, which sets the prompt, environment variables, and aliases. When I ran TCSTART.BAT manually, it did not set those items. When I manually ran the individual commands in TCSTART.BAT (SET /R D:\JPSoft\environ.jp and ALIAS /r D:\JPSoft\alias.jp") those commands had no effect, but there were no error messages. I haven't made any changes to this TCSTART.BAT in years.

I tried restoring TCMD.INI from a backup, with the same result when I started Take Commend. When I looked at TCMD.INI, I saw that there was no item "Key=No". There is "LeftCtrlKey=No", but it's on line 119 (or line 3 of the [TakeCommand] section.

Is there a place where I can download 17.00.64 again for the time being?

 

[TedM]

Oops... I didn't see Rex's post about "Bad 17.00.66".

The version now on the server is 64, though I had no way of knowing that. I downloaded it and ran the installer, which aborted with an error message about a newer version already installed. I had to uninstall Take Command entirely before I could successfully install build 64. It seems to be working as expected.

The installer really should allow regression to earlier versions, specifically to allow for situations like today's bad upgrade.

 

[rconn]

The installer really should allow regression to earlier versions, specifically to allow for situations like today's bad upgrade.

Windows Installer doesn't have a way to do that.

 

[TedM]

As an alternative, would it be possible for the installer to display a message advising the user to uninstall the later version if they really want to downgrade?

Yes, I did figure out that I needed to uninstall. But it would have saved some unnecessary aggravation and wasted time if I didn't have to solve that little puzzle. A developer should strive to minimize the number of hoops users must jump through or puzzles they must solve when something goes wrong, even if Microsoft doesn't allow the easy solution. And there are bound to be occasional glitches like this one, no matter how careful you are.