Installing both Zotero 4.0 and 5.0 on Windows

dstillman
This discussion was created from comments split from: Now available: Zotero 5.0.
  • evkb.gerontopsychiatrie
    Thanks for 5.0!
    A previous query was: Can I run two libraries, two profiles?
    My query is: Can I run a Zotero version <5.0 and 5.0 (using different databases)? May sound trivital, but the installation routine of 5.0 posts "[...] If you continue, the existing verison will be removed [...]"; I could put 5.0 in a sandbox, but I'd like to try to avoid it.
    Why have a <5.0 version left on the same machine? BetterBibTeX is not yet ported and probably won't be for a while... BTW. Theres no need to have both Zoteros running at the same time...
    Cheers
  • dstillman
    It's not officially supported, but we actually build a ZIP on Windows that you can use to avoid the installer. You can get the download URL by taking the regular download URL and replacing "_setup.exe" with "_win32.zip". (This is the final download URL, which is a redirect from the one on the download page. You might be able to get the final download URL from your browser or OS after the download. The current URL is https://download.zotero.org/client/release/5.0.4/Zotero-5.0.4_win32.zip.)

    Possible that a few OS integration things (e.g., opening a RIS file in Zotero) won't work, because there are no registry entries, but should mostly be fine. Again, though, this is untested and unsupported.

    You'll need to pass -P or -p <profile> to select a profile, and each profile should have a different data directory specified.
  • evkb.gerontopsychiatrie
    Unfortunately, that didn't work - it grabbed the old database and converted it to new (i.e. it wasn't agnostic about the fact that there was another Zotero installed). Unfortunately again - I did not back up the DB, so now I'm left with a 5.0 DB version and can't run it in <5.0 any more ;(
  • evkb.gerontopsychiatrie
    Did find a zotero.sqlite.bak file saved just before the above - renamed it to zotero.sqlite and am left with an old version. Cheers! In any case - seems odd that the *.zip installation finds and "destroys" the older database...
  • dstillman
    That's a separate issue — my instructions above are just for the installation part. You can avoid the auto-migration in 5.0 by pointing the 4.0 install at a custom data directory outside the profile directory and moving the old data directory there. Then if you start 5.0 with a separate profile it will use "Zotero" in your user directory.

    There's a backup of the 4.0 database in the Zotero data directory that you can swap back in and try again — zotero.sqlite.77.bak or similar.
  • dstillman
    In any case - seems odd that the *.zip installation finds and "destroys" the older database...
    The ZIP part simply circumvents the installer. The code is exactly the same, and 5.0 automatically upgrades a 4.0 database for obvious reasons.
  • evkb.gerontopsychiatrie
    Have got it working with your instructions, thanks!
    Just another intersting aspect came up: I'm using a high dpi screen and Zotero <5.0 was rendering perfectly fine. Zotero 5.0 now shows the typical "pixeled" fonts and icons and the "interesting" thing is: when running the <5.0 version, that now looks like visual gibberish too...
  • Gurdas_Sandhu
    Regarding the high DPI issue, this might be useful:
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/34352/support-for-high-dpi-ppi-screens-on-windows#latest
  • skreisel
    Thanks @gurdas -> was just wondering because it looked fine using Zotero 4.x; now that the profile chooser window goes up (letting me choose between a that installation and a Zotero 5.0 one - see above), both versions look bad; I seem also to have lost control over the settings using the compatability tweaks on Windows 10. Perhaps the profile chooser routine invokes the Zotero.exes, bypassing any custom compatability settings!?
    Should copy this to your forum link...
    Cheers

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