Brian Vogel wrote:

period.  I download, uninstall the existing beta, and install the next beta version.  Your NVDA settings, add-ons, etc., are retained, so why not start as
close to completely afresh as you can?

Because it is not how the normal user uses the release software.

My thought when testing betas, is to try not to treat them any differently then the release software would be treated in the majority of cases.

So if I want to test what the average user would find, I should behave like the average user would behave.
In this case, that means updating from the help menu.

I can see your fresh install point of view because it replaces the codebase, but to me that is unrealistic to how most users would deploy the software.

It neither simulates updates (because people don't update that way), nor simulates fresh installs (because you keep your userdata). Thus it is an abnormal modality for the software to be used in, and misses tests for the usual use cases.

Luke