That's not how updates work lol. It should make seemless changes without threatening my current install, this makes me a bit nervous.

I followed the link for the update (from inside Poser) but the page it takes me to seems to be for people who do not currently have Poser installed.

I am currently using Poser 11 Pro, it's been prompting me for the update dated 4-26-2020.

Poser has always called for an uninstall, nothing new there. The download page applies to both current users and newbies, as long as you have a serial number embedded in your current version, the file will update you to the next build. IIRC, you might be able to install over your current build without uninstallation but I've never done it that way. As long as you strictly specify to preserve your preferences during installation nothing else that you custom installed or set up will be altered.

Idk I have a crazy runtime tree that took me a long time to set up, the folders are everywhere lol. I’ll probably just pass.

And the Smith Micro updates didn’t work that way iirc. They were pretty much fire and forget.

Your runtimes are NOT deleted. If you choose to retain your existing preferences, they will be there when you open and refresh. If not, you can just relink them super easily.

I don't know why this myth keeps popping up. I can't even count how many times I installed updates and never, ever did I lose any runtimes.

I updated without uninstall and none of my custom runtimes were touched. Additionally the stuff I added to the Poser 11 Content Runtime remained untouched. Also the python scripts I added to the main program files runtime remained after updating.

*edit; and I use 'external binary morph targets' without incident ;)

All my manually installed Python Scripts were untouched after each update I performed. As Rhia474 points out, runtimes are completely untouched and they remain associated if you decide to retain your general preferences. Otherwise, you would need to re-link each runtime to the Library.

I updated without uninstall and none of my custom runtimes were touched. Additionally the stuff I added to the Poser 11 Content Runtime remained untouched. Also the python scripts I added to the main program files runtime remained after updating.

*edit; and I use 'external binary morph targets' without incident ;)