Forced Upgrade, Why?

[AnthonyV]

I completely understand that users using old versions will report old bugs and potentially chew up resources.....  but....

 

I don't think that justifies forcing people to upgrade to a more current versions.

 

I was happily using: paint.net 4.0 (β 4.0.5168.12074), when suddenly my workflow was interrupted by my favorite image editing software forcing me to install software I was not ready to...  

 

Letting a user know they are using an older version should be enough.   Let them make their own timing decisions.

 

Anthony

 

[Ego Eram Reputo]

I'm not sure that you were 'forced' to upgrade.  Notified yes.  The prompt says something like "A new version of paint.net is available....."  right?

 

You can disable the update checks.  Go to Setting > Updates and uncheck both checkboxes.

[BoltBait]

The only "forcing" is here on the forum. We only answer questions about the latest version (as explained in the forum rules):

Person A: How do I do ______ ?

Person B: Oh just click on _____ and then do _____

Person A: I can't find it :'( :'(

Person B: Well make you sure you look over ______ and click on _____ first

Person A: I still can't find it!!! :'(

Person B: (suddenly gains psychic insight) Oh, make sure you have the latest version installed.

Person A: (suddenly gains the power of the latest version) Yes! IT works now!

[Rick Brewster]

I was happily using: paint.net 4.0 (β 4.0.5168.12074)

 

You were using a beta (β). Betas expire. This is because they are buggy, and those bugs get fixed, and it's not good for anyone to have my inbox flooded with bug reports for things that've long-since been fixed.

[mazer1310]

You were using a beta (β). Betas expire. This is because they are buggy, and those bugs get fixed, and it's not good for anyone to have my inbox flooded with bug reports for things that've long-since been fixed.

 

Hi Rick,

 

Although I appreciate the sentiment, the approach that you have for the autoupdate was overly aggressive.  When I started Paint .Net, I was informed that there was a new version available.  I was only given two options:  1. Install right now.  2. Install when the application exits.

 

I thought to myself, "well, that stinks!" I'm on a cellular modem sitting at an airport, waiting for a flight, but Paint .NET isn't a huge application, so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

However, when I went to exit the program, the next thing that happened was :

Installing .NET Framework 4.5.2

Installing Paint .NET <whichever version>

 

My immediate thought was, "uh oh.  I'd better cancel this."  Unfortunately, the cancel button was disabled.  So, after 16 hours of installation, hundreds of megabytes funneled through my cellular plan (fortunately, I have unlimited data on my cell phone plan), and my laptop churning it's harddrive and preventing any decent performanc for other work, I finally was upgraded.

 

I would suggest one additional option for the auto-upgrade:  Install later.  I appreciate that you're trying to get people on the latest to avoid bug reports, however, you don't know where the user is going to be, whether they will be connected on a slow connection, a connection with data limits, or a connection where they are forced to pay for the data quantity, so only allowing the user to update immediately is unreasonable.

[skullbonz]

If you just clicked the X on the top right of the upgrade window it would have gone away and nothing happened.

[Rick Brewster]

I don't think it's overly aggressive. I don't want betas out there after the final version is available. It causes waaaaaaay too many problems. The build AnthonyV was using is from February. That's plenty of time to update!

 

If you're on a final (non-beta/non-alpha), then you don't have to ever install an update. That's your prerogative. 

 

If you don't want an expiring build, then don't ever install an alpha or beta. It really is as simple as that.

 

Also, what skullbonz said.