As for the issue of the 5 minute install, there is “install” and “upgrade” which are different. An install requires no deletion of previous files as this is a first time attempt. The upgrade does, though many have it down to a science and get it done, depending upon their bandwidth and access times, to a minute. It’s amazing.

Future versions are expected to have both the Plugin update and WordPress core programming upgrade incorporated for “automatic” handling. So stay tuned for this to become much easier, and more “Microsoft” style – though I do hope WordPress will continue to NEVER be like Microsoft in some respects.

Thanks for stopping by and taking time to comment. I’ve appreciated your contributions to the WP community and I’m glad to have been able to link a bit of that into this latest post.

WordPress is a wonderful blogging platform. Still, it requires a certain expertise to keep it up-to-date and secure. My intention behind this post was to display a bit of the struggle required in maintaining a WordPress install, while featuring a bit of what WordPress 2.5 could do. Perhaps the post displayed a bit more of the struggle than the benefit of upgrading. I’ll keep that in mind for future posts. Still, I think that I am beginning to realize that it is truly difficult to maintain WordPress without rolling up your sleeves from time to time with a willingness to get your hands dirty so-to-speak, and I feel that it is necessary to communicate that with those who would be thinking of supporting their own WordPress install.

As far as the upgrade process is concerned, I guess you could say that I’m on a quest to make the famous 5 minute upgrade process, 5 minutes in truth. When I manually install via FTP I’m always tentative. I’m not a big fan of having to delete and then re-install, waiting for my Internet connection to catch up with my impatience. 13 years of working with Microsoft products may be to blame for that. Anyway, I’ve tried the Instant Upgrade plugin with limited success, and for this last upgrade, I took WPAU out for a spin. I had hoped that the author would have coded the correct procedure into his offering, but it appears that I was mistaken. Here’s hoping that an updated offering won’t leave me with the same results.

“Doctumentationally” speaking, I am what you could call a “hack.” I don’t feel that I ever really create anything when it comes to code, I simply cobble together what others have done. I feel therefore, that I lack the foundational understanding from which to constructively collaborate with those who write the codex. Still, it’s easier to criticize than it is to provide solutions, so I’ll keep your invitation in mind, as I’d like to be on the solution-provider side of the equation as well.

There were so many last minute changes to WordPress 2.5, and thoughts that the Media Library would not be included, so the documentation team, of which I’m a part, held off on adding documentation for something we were unclear would be currently needed. Now the team is working overtime to get as much of the new documentation done as possible.

It’s a volunteer effort in the support forums and the WordPress Codex and we’d love your help. Please get involved if you would like to help others not suffer as you have.

Thanks and happy blogging now that you’ve figured it all out.