Installing and upgrading

This section covers getting ProBoard v4 onto a computer, bringing an older system across, and keeping a running system up to date. Choose the page that matches your situation.

ProBoard v4 is delivered as a zip file, one for 64-bit Windows and one for 32-bit Windows. Unzip it anywhere and run PBInstall.exe. PBInstall asks where ProBoard should live, shows each step in a window as it works, and finishes with a message when it is done.

Three principles apply to every install and update:

• Backup first. When PBInstall finds an existing system, it copies every file it might change into a time-stamped backup folder, with a manifest listing each file's size and checksum. If the backup fails, nothing else happens.
• Your data is not overwritten. Program files (.exe and plug-ins) are replaced. Your menus, text and ANSI screens, configuration files and user data are only added when they are missing, never replaced.
• Everything is logged. The window shows every step, and the same log is saved in the LOGS folder and next to PBInstall.exe.

PBInstall and PBConfig share the same code for reading and converting data files, so the checks you can run by hand in PBConfig (see Upgrading from 16-bit ProBoard) are the ones PBInstall runs for you.

Figure 1. PBInstall shows each step as it works. The bar is red until the install reaches 100 percent, then turns green.