Issue Description
How can I evaluate new versions of Brave before upgrading the old version and do it on the same computer?
I am currently running version 1.36.112 and am considering upgrading. However, I need to evaluate the new version before the old one is replaced. How can I run both versions on the same computer?
How can this issue be reproduced?
By using auto update
By manually updating to new version
Expected result:
I need to be able to evaluate the new functionality of an update or new version before the old version is overwritten. Brave Version( check About Brave):
all versions Additional Information:
Too many times I have had to stop working to rebuild my browser (or other software) due to auto updates or manual updates that overwrite settings. I am trying to stop that in all of my software.
1.36 is about one year old. You should really consider upgrading urgently. Current version is 1.47.
In few days comes 1.48 that changes the way we receive rewards. Older versions will be obsolete once the rewards system changes.
If you want to run different versions, your best option is to use a ZIP version and extract to a dedicated folder.
You can find them here. Just scroll down to the file list and choose the correct one for your operating system
If you are using Windows this should be the one: “brave-v1.47.186-win32-x64.zip”
Ideally, you’d have Beta and/or Nightly versions of Brave on your device as well. Doing this would allow you to test versions before it reaches Release, which is the standard version of Brave.
Out of sincere curiosity, do you have a particular reason for maintaining such an old version of Brave? There are features that can break by not keeping it updated, not to mention higher chance or security issues.
Well, you could use the link that @rodrige provided and change the search terms to Nightly. You could go back in pages until find the Nightly version that would reflect the version that’s live now. Might have to go like 10+ pages back in time to get there, but it’s whatever. This would allow you to test, I suppose. Though there will be some minor differences.
Overall, you should have absolutely no issue where you have to worry about “evaluating the new version” beforehand.
Brave should always keep its settings. Only thing you’ll have to do is work for changes. Like in newer versions, you have to choose a country for Rewards. So you’d have to select your country as a change. But it’s not like it should do anything to your general settings, bookmarks, passwords, etc. (Though if allow it to fall too far behind on updates, higher chance of something going wrong when you finally do update).
I am looking essentially for a way to opt out of features I don’t want. So, I need to test the released version to see if it has what I want or has something I want to avoid. Which is why I am running an old version. I was very disappointed to find Brave started using auto, forced updates.
A nightly version sounds like it would involve some sort of auto update which is a very bad option for me. I always disable auto updates on everything I can including widows. As I describe below it has caused me enormous trouble with lost data and actually hours of drivetime and wasted fuel to get a hard drive fixed by microsoft in the past.
So, auto updates and forced feature inclusion is something I avoid whenever possible on all software.
I listed the reason in the last paragraph of original post.
Operative word there is “should”. I always disable as many auto updates on everything as they waste a lot of bandwidth and often cripple the performance of older computers. Windows update is a good example of that. It hijacks my laptop and renders it unusable during the update most of the time it runs and often takes from 20 minutes to 16 hours to complete depending upon the size of the update. Plus windows update destroyed my hard drive once and Microsoft bought me a new one but could not recover my data.
As for Brave, I started using it because I wanted a browser that eliminated tracking. A new version started tracking me so I went back to this one and didnt want to use the newer one as I couldn’t figure out how to get it to stop. (logically you cant give rewards without tracking what to base the rewards on.).
I also could not figure out how to get the browser to stop polling for an update which also was wasting bandwidth. So I disabled the program icon and it stopped. I was quite angry when I discovered the icon itself had functionality coded into it and almost stopped using Brave altogether. But when I blocked the icon from loading it stopped the program from wasting bandwidth by constantly searching for an update. I just have to remember which program icon to click to start brave now as it has no icon.
There is a second reason I have to rebuild the browser a lot but I thought it would be better in a separate post. It involves the way Brave saves open tabs when it shuts down. I have to think about how I close multiple browser windows or it closes all my tabs if I close the wrong window first. extremely annoying and time consuming when doing research.