Can I have two different versions of Xlights installed?

[Greg.Ca]

I currently have 3.63 running and very happy and comfortable with it. Especially with programming.  I'm hesitant to install the latest version of 4.?? as I do see a lot of enhancements and bug fixes coming out very regularly. I really don't want to install 4.?? until many months from now when I feel that it is truly solid and working very reliably with all the concerns and bugs worked out.

My concern is that if I do install the latest version of 4.?? is that it will wipe out my 3.63.

Every time I have installed the latest version of Xlights, it has always overwritten the last version. This time I don't want it to do that. Is it possible to have two different versions of Xlights installed on the same computer? I would like to have 3.63 and the latest version of 4.?? installed at the same time on the same computer. Can this happen? What are the consequences? Thanks --Greg--

[Gilrock]

I'm pretty sure the installer will let you pick a new directory.  I've got a few versions installed.  They do share some common settings in the registry like the show folder, media folder, etc.

[jnealand]

Sean has posted that you can rename your current xlights.exe to something like xlights3.exe and put a shortcut to that program on your desktop.  Then install xlights 4 and it will put a new xlights.exe in the normal program folder.  I renamed my xlights folder to be xlights3 and then put the shortcut on my desktop.  When I installed xlights 4 in created a new xlights folder and put the shortcut for xl4 on the desktop, but now I have both of shortcuts and I can switch between the too.  Just do not use the same data folder.  Before starting to try xl4 I made new folder called xl4testing and copied everything from my old xlights data folder into it.  The data may not be compatible so it could be difficult going backward.  As always backup before starting.