Windows users of KDE applications: Do not uninstall.exe

[steven36]

The KDE Project has issued a Security Advisory which states that removal of KDE software which was installed using non-default parameters can result in random user data being deleted. KDE-related "uninstall.exe" files created before July 10th, 2019 have this problem.

 

 

Many KDE applications like Krita, kdenlive and KDE Connect have a larger user-base on other platforms like Windows than they do on GNU/Linux. The Windows versions of KDE applications tend to share common Windows-specific code and the installer is one example. The installer (and uninstaller) shipped with KDE software before July 10th have a "small" problem.

 

"When a Windows KDE Application was installed using some non-default parameters (local install only, using a custom install folder), the application uninstaller was deleting all user data in the installation folder.

 

For example, if installed in the user's "Documents" folder (i.e. not in "Documents/ApplicationName" but directly in "Documents"), the uninstaller would remove the whole "Documents" folder instead of just the files added when installing."

 

 

The KDE team advises that Windows users of KDE software should not use "uninstall.exe" in KDE applications created before July 10th. Users should instead manual eradicate all installed files and folders used by unwanted KDE applications.

 

This issues does, of course, not affect GNU/Linux users.

 

KDE applications built after July 10th have a fix by German hacker Hannah von Reth (blog/github).

 

Source

[DKT27]

I might have tried couple of the softwares mentioned above, before the above mentioned date and possibly even removed them. But I believe that in both the cases I tried the portable versions of them.