Whether or not to uninstall old version before install new

[gdv]

I have been trying to find some guidelines or recommendations re whether to uninstall a previous version (0.9.8a) of VLC before installing the newest version (1.0.3), but I haven't been able to find any. But the installer asks if you want to uninstall the old before installing the new, which seems to imply it is optional. If so, I'm guessing there may be pros and cons each way.

It seems like this information would be somewhere obvious, so I apologize if I've missed it. I did find a couple of very old posts which seemed to recommend uninstalling an older version first, but no real discussion of why.

In my experience, some programs need to be uninstalled to avoid conflicts between version setups, but some other programs recommend installing a new version over an older version in order to save existing settings.

Other than file associations, are there any other settings that it is good to keep by installing new over old or is it better to uninstall old before installing new? If it isn't a requirement to uninstall first, what are the pros and cons of doing it each way?

(If it matters, I using WinXPsp3, haven't installed any additional skins, plugins, etc., and don't think I have any unusual settings.)

Thanks!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

It is roughly the same. It won't change anything, except your starting time.

[gdv]

Not sure what you mean by "starting time" ???

But it sounds like I don't have to worry about functionality or conflicts between any old and new settings either way. ...Correct?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Correct. But each time you will launch a version that isn't the same you launched last time, it might be slower to start.