Can I uninstall All other MS Visual C++ Except the latest version? - associations

I've checked my installed programs in windows 7 machine. In it there are several copies of Microsoft Visual C++ were installed. I know they provide support files for various programs and softwares I've installed in past.
But If I uninstall the older one, will the associated software or games misbehave??? or should I keep them installed?
And if I have to keep them all installed for the sake of their associated softwares, How can I find out some useless copies of this MSVC++ if their main programs were uninstalled already????
Thanks in advance :)

You did not mention the games you intend to make sure will work. Even if you did, I doubt anyone here is developing all the games, so an exact answer is unlikely to be given here.
However, new versions of any software should be as much compatible with older versions as possible and you should keep that in mind when you see all the versions, so you should be able to keep only the latest installation.
However, the way to find out is to perform the following algorithm
for each installation ordered by version except the last
uninstall
test all the games sequentially
if any tests failed, then reinstall the given version
end for each

Don't know exactly but the latest version of visual c++ will be good enough for all other programs

Related

Correct way to create a software install script which can manage dependencies

I'm currently working on an university research related software which uses statistical models in it in order to process some calculations around Item Response Theory. The entire source code was written in Go, whereas it communicates with a Rscript server to run scripts written in R and return the generated results. As expected, the software itself has some dependencies needed to work properly (one of them, as seen before, is to have R/Rscript installed and some of its packages).
Due to the fact I'm new to software development, I can't find a proper way to manage all these dependencies on Windows or Linux (but I'm prioritizing Windows right now). What I was thinking is to have a kind of script which checks if [for example] R is properly installed and, if so, if each used package is also installed. If everything went well, then the software could be installed without further problems.
My question is what's the best way to do anything like that and if it's possible to do the same for other possible dependencies, such as Python, Go and some of its libraries. I'm also open to hear suggestions if installing programming languages locally on the machine isn't the proper way to manage software dependencies, or if there's a most convenient way to do it aside from creating a script.
Sorry if any needed information is missing, I would also like to know.
Thanks in advance

Is it OK to uninstall old versions of Win10 and .NetCore SDKs?

I have a development VM that's taking a lot of disk space. I am trying remove unused apps/tools. I just found out that I am keeping these old versions of Win10 and .NetCore SDKs. I'd like to know if it is ok to remove the old versions and keep the latest? I'm worried if it might encounter problems compiling my old projects. I would really appreciate your answer. Thanks.

MPICH2 Installation

Given the availability of a new workstation (Intell Xeon X5690, Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit) for numerical analysis of fluid dynamics models, I find it a shame not engage in parallel computing. So far, I have had no or little experience in this field.
What's the difference between MS-MPI and the latest release of MPICH suitable for Windows? I installed MPICH 1.4.1, but I cannot get a test program to work on Ifort. How am I supposed to compile the program? Do I have to change Ifort configurations somehow to add the libraries of MPICH? Isn't there any good manual available online that could meet my needs?
There's lots of questions in this one question, but it all boils down to one basic question: How do I install MPI on Windows?
MPICH has long since worked on Windows. The last version that supported it was 1.4.1p1 as you've found, but it doesn't have any support anymore from the MPICH developers so if you have trouble, you probably won't find much help. I haven't seen anyone on here step up to help with those questions so far.
MS-MPI is a good option if you want to use Windows. It's free to use and still has support directly from Microsoft. You'll have to read their documentation about how to set everything up correctly, but it's probably the right place to start if you want to use MPI on Windows.
Intel MPI also works on Windows, but it isn't free so you might not want to look at that right now.

Installing MPI for Windows

I am trying to install MPI for Windows 8, so when I searched net I got steps for installing it on XP/7 but not for windows 8. The link is: http://swash.sourceforge.net/online_doc/swashimp/node9.html
But firstly when I have to allow mpi.exe and smpd.exe to communicate through firewall these exe files are not listed.
Secondly, when I run cmd(as administrator) and type : "smpd -install",
it says : "Unknown option: -install". I guess the command for windows 8 is something else.
So I will be really grateful if anyone helps with it because I'm not able to proceed further.
Side note before I start, MPI is a standard, not a library that you install. MPICH, Open MPI, Intel MPI, MS-MPI, etc. are all implementations of that standard. When you say you're trying to do X with MPI and you're asking for help, mention which implementation (and version) you're using.
Based on your question, I'm assuming that you're trying to install MPICH, though which version is unclear. MPICH hasn't supported Windows since version 1.4.1p and even that version doesn't have any support from the MPICH team anymore as all of the Windows experts are now gone. I'd suggest that you take a look at one of the implementations that do currently support Windows. The only two I know of are MS-MPI (free) and Intel MPI (paid - Update: Now free for most users), though there are probably others out there that I don't know about. If you still have trouble after trying one of those implementations, they have their own support teams that can help you with your problem.
I am not sure which version of MSMPI you were talking about but here is the webpage you should download the latest MSMPI which also supports Win 8.1.
You just need to double click and follow the instructions of installer.

How do small software patches correct big software?

One thing I've always wondered about is how software patches work. A lot of software seems to just release new versions on their binaries that need to be installed over older versions, but some software (operating systems like Windows in particular) seem to be able to release very small patches that correct bugs or add functionality to existing software.
Most of the time the patches I see can't possibly replace entire applications, or even small files that are used within applications. To me it seems like the actual binary is being modified.
How are these kinds of patches actually implemented? Could anyone point me to any resources that explain how this works, or is it just as simple as replacing small components such as linked libraries in an application?
I'll probably never need to do a deployment in this manner, but I am curious to find out how it works. If I'm correct in my understanding that patches can really modify only portions of binary files, is this possible to do in .NET? If it is I'd like to learn it since that's the framework I'm most familiar with and I'd like to understand how it works.
This is usually implemented using binary diff algorithms -- diff the most recently released version against the new code. If the user's running the most recent version, you only need to apply the diff. Works particularly well against software, because compiled code is usually pretty similar between versions. Of course, if the user's not running the most recent version you'll have to download the whole thing anyway.
There are a couple implementations of generic binary diff algorithms: bsdiff and xdelta are good open-source implementations. I can't find any implementations for .NET, but since the algorithms in question are pretty platform-agnostic it shouldn't be too difficult to port them if you feel like a project.
If you are talking about patching windows applications then what you want to look at are .MSP files. These are similar to an .MSI but just patch and application.
Take a look at Patching and Upgrading in the MSDN documents.
What an .MSP files does is load updated files to an application install. This typically is updated dll's and resource files, but could include any file.
In addition to patching the installed application, the repair files located in C:\WINDOWS\Installer are updated as well. Then if the user selects "Repair" from Add / Remove programs the updated patch files are used as well.
I'm thinking that the binary diff method discussed by John Millikin must be used in other operating systems. Although you could make it work in windows it would be somewhat alien.

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