Q: We have a Dell Windows XP PC which currently has my iTunes on it, with which I am synchronizing my iPod. My son wants an iPod nano for Christmas, but after consulting Apple, who told me you
can’t run 2 seperate iTunes on the same PC, we decided against it.
I have been speaking to a friend today and he says that he is running 2 versions of iTunes on his PC. Is this really possible? I can’t imagine why Apple would have given me the wrong information.
If this can be done, how?
– Jason
A: With your wording above, Apple may have interpreted your question as asking about having two different versions of the iTunes program (i.e. 5.0 and 6.0) installed on your computer. This is not possible.
However, it’s far more plausible that you’re simply wanting to have two completely independent iTunes Music Libraries, which you’re certainly able to do.
The easiest and most proper way to accomplish this is to simply create an independent user profile in Windows XP (or MacOS X, for other readers). Then, each user account has a completely separate iTunes Music Library.
To have multiple independent iTunes libraries running in the same Windows XP or MacOS X account, things get significantly more complicated, and third-party software such as Libra (PC/Mac) or iTunes Library Manager (Mac) is required. iLounge typically recommends against this method, simply because it’s not supported by Apple, and may break with future versions of iTunes.
