Hey Jim,

According to Chris Hammond starting with 4.6.2 we no longer need to change the web.config. Simply leave the old one in place and the upgrade process will make any need changes to your current web.config. This is very helpful if you have a lot of custom changes that you have made to your web.config from 3rd party modules.

Here is Chris Hammonds post on the upgrading process.

Here is Chris Hammonds follow up article in regards to not needing to change the web.config from 4.6.2

Not having to modify the web.config makes the whole process a breeze!

Cheers,

Pat

Dr. Pat - I spoke too soon.  Inspired by you, I decided to do the upgrade I've been planning without merging the web.config changes into release.config.  I got a yellow screen of death reading like this:

Source Error:
 

[NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.]
   DotNetNuke.Entities.Portals.PortalSettings.GetPortalSettings(Int32 TabId, PortalAliasInfo objPortalAliasInfo) +4992
   DotNetNuke.Entities.Portals.PortalSettings..ctor(Int32 tabId, PortalAliasInfo objPortalAliasInfo) +77
   DotNetNuke.HttpModules.UrlRewriteModule.OnBeginRequest(Object s, EventArgs e) +3400
   System.Web.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +68
   System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +75

Any suggestions?  The upgrade here was from 4.6.2 to 4.9.5.  I think I'll just go back to WinMerge ...