Upgrading to 2020 from 2018.12

[Songster]

Do I need to uninstall PT "2018.12" before installing 2020? Tech support at Sweetwater, which is usually very good, said there is no need to "uninstall." I have a Windows 10 computer a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen 3 (I was using a 003 Console up until a couple of days ago but was wary of 2020 -working with it) Any advice is appreciated

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Songster

Do I need to uninstall PT "2018.12" before installing 2020? Tech support at Sweetwater, which is usually very good, said there is no need to "uninstall." I have a Windows 10 computer a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen 3 (I was using a 003 Console up until a couple of days ago but was wary of 2020 -working with it) Any advice is appreciated

The recommendation(these days, anyway) is to uninstall any older version first(and always check the box to also uninstall the HD driver if that option appears). Having said that, you can certainly try just installing 2020 over the old version, and if things don't work smoothly, then uninstall(which will remove whatever PT version is seen by Windows). Personally, I would take things a step further with one of these options:
1-save a drive image of your C: drive right now(before any update)
2-clone your C: drive> install the cloned drive>perform the update on that drive(so the current C: drive remains untouched).

Using one of these options allows you to revert back with a minimum of hassle, in case the update goes sour.

Last tidbit(in case you aren't the Windows genius that I wish I was), to perform an uninstall of PT, you need to dig deeper than the Apps and Features menu. With that window open, click in the upper right where it says Programs and Features. Once that menu/list fills up, right-click on Pro Tools>select Change and follow thru to complete the uninstall

[musicman691]

And don't forget to take a trip through the Windows Registry with CCleaner to cleanup any registry entries.