Hi.

This is my first post and I am an inexperienced user of KMyMoney, so please forgive some wrong words.
I have found the kmymoney.org website very confusing and hard to navigate, because there is no dedicated help area for software novice users of KMyMoney Windows version.
It seems the kmymoney.org web site leans strongly towards Linix O/S users and the information shown (including file name extensions, etc) mean little to me.

It took me a month just to figure out that the file ending in EXE was the one I needed to use for instalation. I am computer competent, but know nothing about modifying software. I just like to be pointed to ONE installation file and install it!

My question is how do I upgrade my KMyMoney Ver.5.1.2 for MS Windows, to the latest stable version?
Do I have to uninstall my existing version first?
Do I have to install the new version into a new separate folder first, then uninstall the older version?
Do I have to install one of those funny named files not ending in EXE?
Can I simply install the new stable EXE file 'over the top' (in the same folder) as the currently installed version?

What is frustrating to me, is that there is NOTHING on the kmymoney.org website telling me the how to upgrade steps.

I would be most grateful is some kind person could find the time to help me with this, because I am scared of stuffing up the upgrade process and loosing all my hard work both in learning the program and installing my data.

Thanks a lot.

First, this is the right place to ask for this sort of help. The users mailing list would be another.

KMM (and all of KDE software) was first developed on Linux, and most development is still on that platform, so It is perhaps an historical relic that Linux is still the primary focus. In fact, many of the developers do not have access to Windows or Mac environments, so there are fewer people to provide support specifically for those environments. However, with all that, we should be able to get you sorted out.

One additional issue in the Windows case is that the process for building KMyMoney for Windows has changed over time and there have been issues with getting all the prerequisites properly built. With all that said, the web site seems pretty straightforward to me. Go to the site and click the Downloads link. Seeing as you want to stick with the stable build (and not the nightly developers version) the first paragraph looks pretty clear - "An installation package for the latest stable version can be found on KDE’s CI build pipeline. Download the file ending in windows-msvc2019_64-cl.exe which contains a Windows installer."

The CI build pipeline page shows six files. The three files ending in .sha256 contain checksums for the other three files, one for each. Those can be used to confirm that your download didn't garble the file. We can discuss that separately, if you are interested. The .exe file is, indeed, the one you want. That is the "windows installer" version. The .7z file contains a version you can just unpack into some directory and run from there, and the dbg.7z is similar to the .7x but has been compiled with additional debugging information.

Now, on actual instructions, I would say just run the .exe installer. Note this is from memory, since I have not used Windows in several years. As always, make a backup copy of your .kmy file, just in case there are any problems. Explicitly uninstalling the previous version is probably not absolutely required, but is also probably a good idea to be sure you don't end up with orphaned files. Such files don't hurt anything, but just take up unneeded space.

Good luck, and do let us know if you still need further clarification on anything.

Thank you ostroffjh for your detailed answer, I really do appreciate it when people like yourself are willing help others.

I will download the EXE file and install it 'over the top' of my existing version and keep my fingers crossed that it works OK.
I won't forget to backup my data first and I will just put up with any orphaned files from the previous installation.

I appreciate your help.
denadrian