# Updating MESS

This section deals with updating MESS and some of the problems that you may face when updating to a newer version.

## Updating MESS to a newer version

MESS is in constant development so if you have MESS already and a new version appears then it isn't very clear how to install the newer version and the problems that could arise.

To update from one version of MESS to a newer version all you need to do is to extract the new zip file into your existing C:\MESS directory overwriting all the old files.

There is a problem attached to this in the fact that as MESS is developed the ROM files can change. This is normally due to the MESS developers replacing old, incorrect or missing BIOSes to make the different systems work properly.

A good way to check any changes is to read the messnew.txt as it will tell you what new systems have been added and any changes that have happened to older systems.

For more information on BIOS files and updating them check out the Managing ROM Files section.

Also, .cfg and .ini files could be not compatible across different versions. If you experience some weird behaviour in a given system, try to delete the corresponding system.cfg and system.ini (in cfg/ and ini/ directories respectively).