How to update Lang Switcher: the update letter and installing over the old version

How the program finds out about a new version

Once every 15 days the program reads one file from my site: letters and the latest version number. If the version there is newer than yours, a notification, “Version … is out”, pops up next to the tray icon. Click it, or wait for a quiet moment, and the update letter opens. The program itself doesn’t download or install anything.

• You get one letter per version. Until you update, the tray menu keeps a “Version … is available…” item.
• To read the letter again, open the “From the author” window and click “Recent letters”: the update letter stays there until you install the new version.
• No feed, no update letters: they come in that same file from my site. You can turn the feed off in the settings file, and later in the “From the author” window too. If you do, check the download page for new versions yourself.

How to update

1. In the letter, click “Open the download page”, or open the download page yourself: the latest version is always there.
2. Download LangSwitcher-setup.exe and run it. If the browser or Windows warns you, it’s the same as the first time you installed it, and the download page explains what to do.
3. Click “Yes” on the UAC prompt. You don’t need to exit the program first: the installer closes it and replaces it.
4. On the last page, leave “Launch Lang Switcher” checked. After an update, the program doesn’t start on its own.

What’s kept

• Your settings and exclusions. They live in %APPDATA%\Lang_Switcher\config.toml, not in the program folder, and the installer doesn’t touch that file. As the letter puts it, “Your settings are kept.”
• Autostart. Every time the program starts, it brings the autostart entry in line with the “Start when I sign in” box.

Going back to an older version

Older releases are on the program’s GitHub page, under Releases, and they install the same way, over the current one. An older version can read a settings file written by a newer one, but it won’t save it while it runs, so any changes you make in the older version won’t be kept. If the file has a hotkey the older version doesn’t support yet, it reads a combination as the same key without Ctrl, Alt and Shift, and a double Shift as Pause.