The reason that you have to uninstall the older version of ComponentWorks and ComponentWorks++, to be replaced by Measurement Studio for Visual Basic and Visual C++ respectively, is because the .ocx files and plug-ins for the environments will conflict from both versions. Version 5.5.1 and 6.0 of CVI can reside concurrently on the same system.
When uninstalling ComponentWorks 3.0.1 and ComponentWorks 1.0.1 you should always back up your project files, but the uninstallation itself should not break your current applications or projects. When loaded they will simply contain the new versions of the controls, but to take advantage of the new features you will have to edit your source files and rebuild your apps.
As for your already distributed applications, just to mak
e it easier on your end-users, I highly suggest rebuilding your apps with the new controls, creating a new distribution package, and redistributing the new releases. This will help you avoid problems of registering the new controls on their systems, making sure the old ones are removed correctly, etc... If they just uninstall your old distribution packages and install the new ones, it will take care of this procedure for them.
Remember though, that good installation practices follow the order of; uninstalling, rebooting, and then installing the new software. Follow this and you'll be ok.
Jason F.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
www.ni.com/ask
