Reinstalling Anaconda problem menus, directories and PATH

[mrstefan...@gmail.com]

Dear Continuum team,
these days I had some problems about reinstalling procedure of Anaconda packages. At first two months ago, i have installed your software without problem, it runned very well but I have decide to downgrade version 3.5 for the older 2.7. After disinstallation, I've try to reinstall package of 2.7 but without success. The installer gave me three alerts at the final act: didn't create the Menus, directories and Path. I've try to install latest C++, like suggests on forums, but nothing. Always same errors. I've clean all my windows pc, disinstall from control panel, check register and directories were empty. I've try a mix of solution like: open the wizard like admin, switch off my firewall, reduce the control from operative system; using installing version only for my own or for all users (admin requires). At now I've found no solutions.
Hope you can help me, my regards.
Stefano Mastini     

[belen....@gmail.com]

I've the same problem. If you ever get a solution, please let me know.

[gregor...@gmail.com]

I have the same problem and vould need a solution

[csok...@gmail.com]

I also have same problem. Spyder crashes if I try to open a file, so I decided to reinstall Anaconda. now I am having exactly same problem described by Stefano. Please help us!

[Ian Stokes Rees]

Hi Stefano, and others facing the same issue.  We're sorry for the hassles you're facing.  Anaconda, first and foremost, is meant to be easy and reliable to install and use, and to provide the foundational pieces for open data science on Windows, Mac, and Linux.  I get the impression you're not currently having that experience.

I've replied on another thread with some more details about what you might try doing to create a "fresh" environment where the pieces work, however here it seems you're reporting that Anaconda "just doesn't work at all", and that an uninstall and re-install is also failing.

To quote myself (from just a few minutes ago on another thread):

There is a new command `anaconda-clean` that will do a more thorough "wipe" of Anaconda to remove (purportedly) all traces of it.  I'm not experienced with it, but you might try that out if you have nothing else to loose, and then re-install to see if Anaconda + Spyder work more happily together.

Perhaps try that and report the results.  The other thing we can do, if getting this solved is important to you, is try to do a screen-share and figure out the cause.  It appears this is affecting many people so it would be good for us (Continuum) to understand the cause better.  If you're so inclined raise your hand and we'll get in-touch off-list.

Ian

[Samuel Okpara]

Please how do I issue this comand 'anaconda-clean'? I have currently uninstalled Anaconda from my computer.

Please note that despite the installer alerts "didn't create the Menus, directories and Path" as specified by stefano, Anaconda is still installed to the computer.

Also, I was cruising and enjoying Spyder + Anaconda... untill I upgraded to the latest version of Spyder some days ago.

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[Ian Stokes Rees]

Hi Samuel,

On 12/13/16 11:49 AM, Samuel Okpara wrote:

Please how do I issue this comand 'anaconda-clean'? I have currently uninstalled Anaconda from my computer.

Please note that despite the installer alerts "didn't create the Menus, directories and Path" as specified by stefano, Anaconda is still installed to the computer.

Also, I was cruising and enjoying Spyder + Anaconda... untill I upgraded to the latest version of Spyder some days ago.

I know, chicken and egg problem.  I'm not sure how you proceed on Windows.  I had the same problem here (early October):

https://github.com/ContinuumIO/anaconda-issues/issues/1131

If Anaconda is still "somewhat" installed then perhaps you can start `cmd.exe` and from the command terminal execute the command `anaconda-clean`.

I'd suggest adding comments/details/screenshots/command-traces to the GitHub issue I referenced above.  It should help the engineers figure out how to solve the problem.

Ian

[Samuel Okpara]

Hi Ian,

I know this might sound inconsistent, but I will say exactly everything I did.

Like I told you before, I already uninstalled Anaconda because I conceived a plan to solve my 'personal' problem which is: installing standard python 3.5, then manually install matplotlib & Spyder using pip. I already succeeded in implimenting this idea before your last reply came in.

I however decided to give your suggestion a try for the sake of the community. I reinstalled Anaconda but this time there was no error and it installed perfecty (I don't know why!)  :(

I also tried to issue the command 'anaconda-clear' but it returned some error. See below...

Samuel

--

[Dan Codiga]

All,

I had these errors too (on Windows 7). In my case the problem was that my Windows PATH environment variable had been appended to several times, with each successive reinstall, and the uninstall/clean process was not going back and removing the additions-- so it became too long and was getting truncated, making it impossible to add entries to it. 

By re-setting the Windows PATH environment variable (easy to find step by step instructions for how to do this, online) so that it was shorter and didn't have any repeated entries etc, the problem was resolved.

I think the Anaconda product needs to have a more robust uninstall process and anaconda-clean (which has come in to existence since I went through all the above) seems like it may be a good start.

(Earlier post: https://groups.google.com/a/continuum.io/forum/#!searchin/anaconda/codiga/anaconda/KPF63cpwTkQ/-8JzubxjBgAJ )

Hope this helps,

Dan

[Ray Donnelly]

I agree that we need to fix this.

I would also like to add some strong text to the installers advising
against selecting the permanent path modifications because of 1) DLL
hell 2) short PATH limits and 3) it can cause people to avoid learning
about and/or using the proper environment activation procedure which
is <CONDA_INSTALL_PREFIX>\Scripts\activate.bat <ENV_NAME>. From the
'Start Menu' you can use launch the 'Anaconda Prompt' to take care of
this to get a shell with the root environment activated but for our
GUI applications, there's some work to do to fix them so that they
also activate the environment properly when launched from that menu.

When it is optional, I would recommend people not to allow installers
to add anything to their Windows PATH (System or User) permanently.
Ideally you should keep modifications local to each session/cmd.exe
shell.

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[Dan Codiga]

Good points all, I agree. 

My solution (Windows only) for launching Spyder within my desired environment is a batch file (see this post: https://groups.google.com/a/continuum.io/forum/#!searchin/anaconda/codiga/anaconda/LVPjzO90cZE/wtS9bDkWCAAJ )-- but learning better alternatives would be good.