The launcher program anki-launcher-25.09-windows.exe doesn’t work. It doesn’t open any terminal window or install anything, it simply delays for a while and then starts the old existing version 25.07.5
Using Tools > Upgrade/Downgrade from within Anki does do the upgrade to 25.09.
From the other thread, this seems to be intentional behavior, but it’s completely counterintuitive. The installer for a newer version should not simply silently launch the old version. At least it should detect the existing older version and pop up a dialog box telling people to upgrade using Tools > Upgrade/Downgrade instead.
Tools → Upgrade/Downgrade allows you to update by running “1) Latest Anki (press Enter)”.
And with “2) Choose a version” you can install older versions.
Maybe your confusion comes from the fact, that the launcher is involved in installing and downloading, instead of literally just launching / running the anki binary?
Edit: Regarding your title change: I opened a PR to hopefully make it a bit more obvious. Let’s see if dae accepts it.
Run Anki. If you already had it installed, use Tools>Upgrade/Downgrade
This implies that everyone should run the launcher as the first step. Maybe it could be changed to something like:
If you already have a recent older version of Anki installed, run it and then use Tools>Upgrade/Downgrade to upgrade it.
If there is no Upgrade/Downgrade option in the Tools menu, or if you do not already have Anki installed, download the latest launcher from below and run it to install Anki.
This assumes that every Anki version with a Tools>Upgrade/Downgrade menu item can actually use it to successfully install the latest version. I don’t know if some earlier beta versions had some bugs in this functionality? If by any chance they did, then those users won’t be able to upgrade at all.
It also assumes that users of non-recent Anki versions without any Tools>Upgrade/Downgrade menu item will actually be able to use this launcher to update, instead of having it silently launch their existing non-recent version like it does with the existing recent version 27.07.5.
Until now, running the download from the GitHub Releases page or from the Download links section on the apps.ankiweb.net page has always allowed a clean-slate install that overwrites any existing version. If this is no longer the case, it will be a source of continual confusion.
The Download links section on the apps.ankiweb.net page also has no instructions telling you to use Tools>Upgrade/Downgrade instead. This is where the vast majority of people download from, since the GitHub Releases page is really only known to the users of this forum I think.
I actually had experienced a bug myself were the update worked fine, but anki crashed on launch; the reason was that my launcher was outdated. That’s why the first part of the instructions in github say:
Install the latest launcher from below
That’s actually precisely what’s happening. The correct launcher for your architecture gets selected (amd64 or arm64) and then setups the environment and runs the anki binary (which you can up-/downgrade from the tools menu).
The apps.ankiweb.net page just has a big blue “Download” button, and this is how the overwhelming majority of users install or upgrade Anki on the desktop.
After you click that Download button, you are automatically scrolled down the same page to the Downloads section, where you can click on the blue Anki 25.09 link in the Desktop Windows 10+ line.
There are no further instructions on that page. There is an “Installation Guide” link a bit further below, but who is going to click on that?
So the vast majority of users will download what they perceive to be an installer program, and what has in fact functioned as an Anki installer program until very recently, and they will run it, but they will end up still running their old existing Anki version, none the wiser.
and attempts to upgrade anki by downloading and running the launcher from the website,
then they’ll be greeted with anki (instead of an update process).
I think it is assumed that users update automatically via Tools > Preferences > Check for program updates or that they read update instructions if they choose to manually reinstall the launcher (does auto update still work btw? I never used it so couldn’t tell. Especially updating the launcher as well, which might be neccessary).
I do understand your confusion here and agree that this could be improved. Let’s see what others have to say (and if dae would accept changes in this area).