I want to run multiple versions of MATLAB (with standalone licenses) on a Windows XP home computer. One is MATLAB R2007b and the other is MATLAB R2009a. I found some docs online (link and link), but nothing related to the latest versions. Has anyone tried this?
I've been running MATLAB both on my desktop and in a virtual machine successfully for a while now. I happen to be running the same version in both right now, but there's no reason why you couldn't run different versions in and out of the VM. This setup allows me to keep a stable working version of my application available that I can rely upon to satisfy the need to rapidly analyze data while simultaneously having a separate development version that may or may not be fully functioning at any particular time.
You can do that, just install the new and the old versions in different directories.
FWIW if you have the chance to run MATLAB R2009b rather than R2009a, you might want to. I haven't looked in detail at the release notes yet, but I noticed already that the language in Simscape has been improved in R2009b + now I have to reinstall it yet again to get the upgrade...
You could use Octave which is an open source 'alternative', should sort the issue out nicely