Should I uninstall my older Mathematica before I install the newest version?

It is recommended, but not necessary, to uninstall older versions of Mathematica before installing a new version.

If you chose to have multiple versions, you should specify different installation directories for each. For example, if you have Mathematica 6.0.0 for Windows in the default location C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\6.0, then the version 6.0.1 minor release could be installed into, for example, C:\Program Files\Wolfram Research\Mathematica\6.0.1.

The installation directory to use is prompted for by the Mathematica installer in MS Windows and in Unix/Linux. In Macintosh, it is recommended that you rename the existing Mathematica*.app package in the Applications folder before installing the new one.

Installing a new version of Mathematica on top of an existing installation (in other words, in the same directory) is strongly discouraged.

By default, different Mathematica versions share a front-end preference file. If you wish to keep preferences separate between major releases (for example, 5.2 and 6.0), see the following FAQ:

http://support.wolfram.com/mathematica/interface/customize/versionedpreferencesoption.html

Download this FAQ as a Mathematica 6.0 Notebook

Questions or comments? Send email to support@wolfram.com.