NeoDownloader
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Install, update and remove

NeoDownloader 6 runs on Windows and comes in two forms, an installer and a portable version. This page covers both: setting them up, moving to a new version and removing them.

Installer or portable version

It is the same program. What differs is where it keeps things:

  • The installed version keeps its projects and settings in your Windows profile and downloads into your Downloads folder, inside NeoDownloader.
  • The portable version keeps everything in its own folder: projects and settings in data, downloads in downloads, both beside NeoDownloader.exe. Move the folder - to another disk or a USB drive - and all of it moves along.

Premium is tied to the computer it was activated on, so on another computer the portable version has to be activated again. More in Five computers.

The file portable.txt beside NeoDownloader.exe is what makes the folder portable. Keep it: without it, NeoDownloader keeps its data in your Windows profile instead and does not see the projects in data.

Install NeoDownloader

Download NeoDownloader from the version 6 page.

The installer is the file whose name ends in -setup.exe. Run it and follow the wizard:

  • It asks who to install NeoDownloader for. Only for me is the default and needs no administrator rights; Anyone who uses this computer (all users) asks for them. Either way, every Windows user has their own projects and settings.
  • You can choose another folder for the program.
  • When it finishes, NeoDownloader has shortcuts on the desktop and in the Start menu.

The portable version is the zip whose name ends in -portable.zip. Inside is a single folder, NeoDownloader. Unpack the zip to a place you can write to - anywhere on your disk or a USB drive, but not Program Files - and run NeoDownloader.exe.

The first time you run a new release, Windows may show Windows protected your PC. Click More info, then Run anyway.

NeoDownloader 5 can stay: version 6 is a separate program with its own folders, and the two run side by side. Projects and settings from version 5 are not carried over.

Update NeoDownloader

NeoDownloader tells you when a new version is out, and you install it yourself. Plugins are part of the program and are updated with it: when a site changes and a plugin needs a fix, the fix comes in a new version of NeoDownloader.

When a new version is out

Once a day NeoDownloader checks whether a new version has come out. When there is one, a strip at the bottom of the window says New version available, with its number:

  • More info opens a page about it in your browser. The strip stays.
  • Dismiss hides the strip until the next version comes out.

To check right now, open the menu, choose About… and click Check for updates. The answer appears beside the button: You have the latest version, or Could not check for updates if the check did not get through.

The daily check can be turned off: Settings… → Program → General → Check for updates. The button in About… works either way.

Install the new version

NeoDownloader does not update itself: download the new version from the site, the same way you got the first one.

  • Installed version: close NeoDownloader and run the new installer. It replaces the program, and your projects, settings and downloads stay as they were.
  • Portable version:
    1. Close NeoDownloader.
    2. Unpack the new zip somewhere else, not over the old folder: unpacked over it, the files the new version no longer has would stay behind.
    3. Move the data and downloads folders from the old NeoDownloader folder into the new one, beside the new NeoDownloader.exe.
    4. Run the new NeoDownloader.exe. Once you see your projects, delete the old folder.

Updates and Premium

Premium includes a year of updates, and every version released during that year stays Premium for good. If a new version came out after your year ended, the strip also says Without a renewal it works with the free version's limits and offers Renew.

Installed without a renewal, such a version works with the free version's limits, and a strip saying This build is outside your update window… offers two ways out: Renew, or Get that version - the newest version your licence covers.

Remove NeoDownloader

If you have Premium and will not use NeoDownloader on this computer again, first open Licence in the menu and click Deactivate. That frees this computer's seat on your licence for another one. More in Move to another computer.

Installed version

Close NeoDownloader and remove it like any other program: open Windows Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find NeoDownloader, open the … menu beside it and choose Uninstall. In Windows 10 the list is called Apps & features.

Two things stay on the computer:

  • your downloads, wherever they are;
  • NeoDownloader's data folder, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Neowise\NeoDownloader: projects, settings, the licence and your sign-ins to sites.

Install NeoDownloader again, and the projects are back.

To remove the data as well, paste %LOCALAPPDATA%\Neowise into the address bar of File Explorer and delete the NeoDownloader folder in it. Leave the rest of Neowise alone: it may hold folders of other Neowise Software programs.

Portable version

Close NeoDownloader and delete its folder. The downloads folder inside goes with it, so first move out anything you want to keep. Projects whose folder you chose somewhere else keep their files there.