Money 365

[mayennaise]

would I be able to download an older version of this without removing or corrupting the fairly up to date version that I've already got on the computer?

[Buenchico]

This is a tricky question to answer without knowing where the installation program for the software places the files it needs.

With many programs it's possible to have two different versions running side by side simply by changing the default directory location for the program at the beginning of the setup process. (It's sometimes necessary to choose a "custom installation" option in order to be able to change the default directory). I've had two versions of VLC media player running happily side-by-side on the same machine by doing exactly that.

However some software installations add or alter files in folders which are common to Windows, rather than in specific folders dedicated to the relevant software. If, say, an old version of a program drops a file called xyz123.dll into a Windows folder and then a later version of the program also seeks to put xyz123.dll there, it won't matter at all if both files are actually identical. However if the software developer has changed xyz123.dll (but not bothered to rename it), then the old version of the program will expect to find the old version of xzy123.dll but will, instead, encounter the new one, potentially causing it to crash.

If I'd got new software on my own computer I'd happily try to install an older version alongside it (through changing the default directory) as long as it wouldn't really matter if I then mucked up the newer version. (i.e. if the software I was using was free, or I'd got a paid-for copy on disk, I'd know that, if things went wrong, I could simply uninstall and reinstall the new version). However if I could only get hold of the new version by paying a large sum of money for a fresh download I'd be extremely wary of trying it!

So how adventurous are you feeling today?