Mono install for Windows

I have posted this in the Udemy Q&A but I thought it might be useful to post here as well. It summarises what I have been able to discover about the Windows install. It is mostly my own impressions so is not carved in stone and I am happy if someone with a better knowledge of the subject wishes to correct me,

I thought that the install for Windows was a bit glossed over in the lecture. As far as I can see this works a little differently from the Mac, in that the windows install is not qualified by a release number but just removes and overwrites the existing Mono directory. Therefore you need to be careful if you want to retain that directory.

You will most likely find your Mono directory in either C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86) I believe the convention is that 64 bit programs go in Program Files and 32 bit programs go in the (x86) version. Before installing Mono therefore it would probably be wise to back up the existing Mono directory and rename the copy to one qualified by the version number. Then go ahead and run the install, optionally you might want to create a backup copy of the newly installed version qualified by the version number.

You can then rename the directory containing whichever version of Mono that you wish to run to Mono according to your needs.

You might also want to simulate the symbolic link by creating a shortcut in your C:Program Files or (x86) directory called Mono and point it to whichever Mono directory version that you wish to use, of course if you do this you will not be able to have an actual Mono directory as it will be replaced by the shortcut. I have no idea whether this will actually work though.

As far as I can see there is no entries for Mono in the ENV variables or in the Registry so I would not expect for there to be any complications there. Although, from the Mono documentation it does appear that the Mono directory is dynamically added to the Windows PATH environment directory when Mono starts.

It appears that Mono 5.12.0 is the latest stable version of Mono so if you use that version I would not anticipate problems with other applications. It would be interesting to see though if Godot mean that 5.12.0 or later will work, or if they are also specifically excluding later versions. If is the case is that simply because later versions have not been tested or because there is an actual known problem. Since gamedev.tv seem to have a good relationship with the Godot people it might be helpful if they could clarify the matter with them.

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