Upgrade MariaDB bundled installation?

I installed MariaDB about half a year ago on Windows server 2019, and included the bundled HeidiSQL (version 11.0.0.5919). HeidiSQL now wants me to upgrade to 11.2.0.6213. Reasonable. Download it and launch the installer.

It suggests to install into C:\Program Files\HeidiSQL, but the MariaDB-bundled version is installed into C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\MariaDBShared\HeidiSQL.

What should I do?

There's no obvious way to uninstall the MariaDB bundled version, because there's no separate HeidiSQL item in Programs and Features etc. and the MariaDB item doesn't have a Modify option, only uninstall (which I don't want to do).

I would have expected the installer to detect the bundled installation and choose that installation folder. Or, clearly state that it found that other installation, and will replace it with the stand-alone one (in the folder of choice). As it is now, I can't determine if it is even aware of the bundled installation, nor determine if I will get a duplicate installation if I choose the folder, or crash the bundled installation if I choose that folder.

In that case I would recommend to install to the default location (C:\Program Files\HeidiSQL), even if it's then a duplicate to the bundled one.

Just be aware that the old version in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\MariaDBShared\HeidiSQL should not be used any longer then, as this may break some newer configuration settings with the newer version.

OK. Sounds like the MariaDB team should bundle it in a different way, but I guess that should be addressed to the MariaDB team and not here.

One question though: Will the new installation find and bring in the settings of the existing bundled installation?

I reported the problem to MariaDB: https://jira.mariadb.org/browse/MDEV-25521

Yes, the main settings are stored in the registry, not in the installation folder. So any heidisql.exe you run on your computer uses this shared registry folder for reading and writing. That is also the reason why I recommend not to use an old version together with a newer one.

Did you see the reply in MariaDB's Jira? Portable install apparently. So how is HeidiSQL intended to be upgraded in this case? Seems reasonable that a portable install should be possible to upgrade, doesn't it?

I saw your note in the MariaDB issue. No problem, but I'd suggest that you modify the update checker in the portable install to instruct the correct upgrade procedure, instead of leading the user to a regular installer download. I'd say that's a bug, really.

Yes, it's a wrong download link, and I will have to change it to the portable zip download in that case.

Nice! I think a short installation instruction text would be in order too, actually. Preferably specifying the folder location of the existing protable install, because when bundled like in MariaDB, the regular user may not know where it's located. I found it by inspecting the shortcut...

I modified the download button now so it redirects to the portable (64 or 32 bit), and the button also states what will be downloaded (portable or installer):

But I don't know where to place instructions for extracting it. Suggestions?

I could send a second shell command to start an Explorer window with the right folder opened. Or would that be "too much windows"?

Nice!

In the portable case, I'd suggest you add a second button or a hyperlink under the download one, leading to an instructions webpage. Either way (link or button), it could be captioned/labeled "Instructions for portable upgrade" or something like that.

Oh, I kind of like the hyperlink alternative better, especially if you enable the user to copy it. That way, if I have the installation on a server that I work with through RDP (which is probably not unusual), I can copy the link and paste into a web browser on my machine, instead of getting a browser window inside the RDP client.

Would a webpage with instructions really be helpful? It would just say

please extract the portable zip file into the folder where you have it on your harddisk

or something like that. The webpage cannot even tell the user where the folder is.

What about making the "instructions" link just displaying a dialog, containing the instructions, plus a link to the currently used folder, and that link opens an Explorer window?

Similar to that:

Good point!

If the instruction is that short, isn't it better to just put in in the first upgrade dialog? No need for another one?

Apart from that, I think this looks very promising!