To backup is a general precaution. It is good IT custom to do backups.
During update or reconfigure procedures any software is at its most vulnerable moment.
I generally recommend backup before You do such things.
No, recent K-Meleon versions had AFAIK no significantly high amount of failed installs. It was usually the users that chose other install options and wondered where bookmarks and settings had gone
The biggest cause for breaking is currently a scandisk run after a Windows crash.
You definitely want a profiles backup for that. It is a FAQ and possible to repair that. But it is wise to have an backup instead.
I remember that 0.8.2 sometimes partially broke plugin support, and only a clean reinstall helped. I was effected by that. But that is distant past.
p.s. before some actions even I with all my installs do a backup, I clone the version that i want to change to another location and do my works there, if the result works I copy the guinea pig back to the original location.
I use the same setup as siria and ndbord, Profiles in k-meleon install dir (deselected multiuser support), that setup is portable, we can clone into a zip or to any other location e.g. a usb drive.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2009 10:03AM by guenter.