Probably a very niche feature request...
I had significant issues with some builds of BIAB in (recent) past, which included crashes, hangs and "violation at address" things. I am at 728 build now and it seems to be stable and works without any issues. I am hesitant to move up since I do not have time for troubleshooting if issues start happening.

The request is have an option of full rollback to "previously installed version" right from BIAB with all the preferences and sound settings reverted back, right before newest patch was applied.

For now, I remember the magic 728 number... If lets say I forget to look at
the installed version number, before installing a new version and new version would break something, I would have to poke at all prior versions to find a stable one.

I think I understand the intention. Not just install a previous version, but 'roll back' to all of the last used settings of that previous version.

I keep every BiaB single upgrade labelled and available by Year and Update build (currently about 200Gb+ of .exe upgrades, separate from the Audiophile files), but these would not include the specific settings that previous versions used.

Not sure how to do it, but worthy of consideration.

[Edit]

I think you just want a "one-click" solution to this rollback, correct? I may have misunderstood your intent.

[Original]

There is an option to backup the current preferences to a file, which I expect keeps most of the global settings. I create a new copy of that file before I tweak the MIDI inputs and audio interfaces. I presume there are more settings that you want backed up that would not be captured in there?

I'm sure adding back a bunch of VST's would be major pain, but to be honest I don't know of that many other things that would need to be restored if things completely blew up, but perhaps that is because I have not been in that situation before.

I can see the merit in this. I'm also not sure how it can be done as a one-click solution.

Now, you can take two actions: back up your preferences, and reinstall an earlier build .EXE that you kept. The beta testers already do this when a new test build renders sometime unworkable that is critical. As far as VSTs or other add-ons, I would think that regular registry backups and restorations are required, which a one-click solution in only BIAB cannot accomplish, I think.

I don't know if you roll back if it would uninstall the other updates to RT/RD/Styles/Demos ?
You could just make a copy of the exe's and config files before updating
bbw64-728.exe
that's what I got, then I can run any version.
BB did keep previous exe's in Data\Backup but I don't see 2020 ?
If it could work that way with the previous settings also.

Something came to mind, but there are two items in question.

1) Does "backup the current preferences" saves all of the settings? or it misses some? If it saves ALL the settings, than there is a fairly easy solution to my request.

Automate installation of the new version to create "backup preferences" before installing itself and generate name of that file to include the version number of current version. Example: v728_backup_date

2)Does "downgrade" gets rid of all changes made by "new" patch or it leaves code? If "downgrade" gets rid of new code then it is a matter of looking up "backup preference" file to figure what version you had, downloading this particular version, installing it and loading preference file.


A single button "go back to previous version" would be ideal, but I do get how it can get tricky, so the above solve and semi-automate the process.

Videotrack, If user updates BIAB with every new released patch, then it is easy, you just go back to "previous" patch. Without looking/cheating I do not even know the number of the current ver. For now, I will keep 728 until 2021 version released, just because it is stable. I spent many hours trying to figure out issues with some builds and even Andrew could not figure it out based on crash logs, etc.. until I got lucky with version that stopped acting up (728).

So to put it in the right perspective, it should benefit both, users and PG crew. For example, somebody who had version 723 jumps to version 730, forgetting (or not paying attention) to the version that they had prior to that. 730 goes bananas on them. They contact tech support / forum and saga starts...
Assuming that version 723 worked for that person, it would be logical to
suggest to install 727(24,25,26,28, 29) to pinpoint if issues related to specific patch, instead of trying to figure out bugs blindly and as in my case (and a couple of others I seen) fruitlessly. What I suggested above will at least give the last working version number that person had installed that could be resurrected with ease.

Pipeline,
Yes, as you described, but let "new" patch installation automate that backing up process.

There is a bat file I made to start Biab with any settings or theme you like,
you could take it further to start any version you like.
You could add a menu to it to select version, theme and settings.
Start Biab & RealBand in Different Modes

Pipeline,
"further to start any version you like"

"safe mode" BIAB with option to revert to previous "version(s)" right from GUI?

Process that you described should not be a big issue to implement, and potentially can significantly reduce troubleshooting time for both PG and users.

Yes all that can be done, as you update it will save the old version to a folder.
Then Help > Restart > BB 734 (this menu will display the old versions in that folder)
it will then start that version from the menu and close the current version.