Remove old version before upgrade?

[Terry Reedy]

"Steve Holden" <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote in message 
news:furl3k$v6t$1 at ger.gmane.org...
| Sal wrote:
| > I'm currently running Windows version 2.5.1 and would like to upgrade
| > to 2.5.2. My question is, can I just go ahead and install the new
| > version over the old or should I remove the old version with add/
| > remove programs first? The old version is in a directory named
| > Python25.
|
| You can do either. Since there's no change of major version the
| executable will have the same path, and the deinstall handily leaves all
| files that weren't part of the original install in place. So if it suits
| your sense of neatness, by all means deinstall before reinstallation.

I would leave things alone unless you really want to start from scratch. 
If you have installed any 3rd party packages that put files in 
Python25/DLLs or Python25/Libs/site-packages, I would not trust the 
uninstaller to not disturb anything.