Installation Guide for pc

1-21
Saving Your MATLAB Preferences
MATLAB stores your environment preferences, such as command history and 
Help favorites, in four files, listed below. 
By default, the Release 12.1 uninstaller does not delete these preference files. 
The uninstaller for Release 12 and earlier MATLAB releases, however, deletes 
these preference files. Before removing one of these earlier MATLAB releases, 
you may want to preserve your preference files by performing these steps:
1
Save copies of the existing preference files in a directory that is not going to 
be deleted. 
To find the location of your preferences files, run the 
prefdir
function at the 
MATLAB prompt. For example, on Windows NT systems, 
prefdir
returns
prefdir
ans =
C:\WINNT\Profiles\yourname\Application Data\MathWorks\MATLAB\R12
2
Run the uninstaller associated with the a MATLAB Release 12 or earlier 
installation. This deletes the preference files.
Note Because preferences are associated with particular users, the 
uninstaller only deletes the preferences for the user performing the uninstall.
3
Move the saved copies of the preferences files back into the appropriate 
Windows preference directories. 
Filename
Preferences
cwdhistory.m
Command Window history
history.m
Command History
matlab.prf
General MATLAB preferences
matlab_help.hst
Help Favorites

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1 
Standard PC Installation Procedure
1-22
Removing Installations That Use Dongles
In some installations, MATLAB requires a dongle. A dongle is a 
hardware-based security device that attaches to the serial or parallel printer 
port of a desktop computer. It uses embedded codes and passwords to control 
access to software applications.
If your system uses dongles, the uninstaller asks if you want to delete the 
dongle drivers. If other applications you run on your system use dongles, do not 
delete these drivers. For more information, see “Troubleshooting an 
Installation That Uses Dongles” on page 4-14.

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Installing Additional Products