Power bi desktop rs multiple versions

[Anonymous]

How many versions of Power BI Desktop RS can you have installed? I upgraded my computer to March 2018 version as I am testing same version of Power BI Report server on a Dev server. Now I need to edit some Power BI reports created with Desktop RS Oct 2017 version, and hosted in our Production server with same version. When I tried to install the old version I got a message that I can't because I already have a newer version.

[Anonymous]

I was finally able to accomplish what was needed. For the benefit of anyone that may have same issue I will share my findings :

1. You can have multiple versions of Power BI Desktop (E.g. Oct 2017, Mar 2018, Jun 2018) for non RS versions (RS is synced to same version of on-premise Power BI Report Server).
2. You can have 2 versions of Power BI RS if each one is different architecture (E.g. 32 bits, 64 bits). I was able to install RS Oct 2017 32 bit version, and RS Mar 2018 64 bit version. This allows to have one version for the Production environment (older version), and a newer version for testing against a newer Report Server. This is useful for testing new features.

Note :

Doesn't matter if your server is running 64 bits and you run a 32 bit RS Desktop version, as long as they are the same (E.g. Mar 2018) then they communicate succesfully.

As always, thanks to everyone for their feedback and suggestions.

[pyhchan]

Hi,

You can have 2 versions of Power BI Desktop RS (RS is synced to same version of on-premise Power BI Report Server) on the same PC running side by side.  First make a copy of the current version of the folder and rename it.  Install Power BI Desktop RS new version.  Then delete the old desktop shortcut and make a new one out from C:\Program Files\Microsoft Power BI Desktop RS\bin (PBIDesktop.exe).  Also, create another shortcut to the older version of the Power BI Desktop.  

Thanks

Regards

Peter

[ahpitre2]

Yes, but on March 2020 I tested this with Desktop Sep 2019 RS 32 bits and Desktop Jan 2020 RS x64. You still can't have 2 RS versions with same architecture (E.g. either both x64 or 32 bits). This is a glaring ommision by Microsoft as installing a 32 bit version next to a X64 is limiting as 32 bit apps. cannot use much memory (some of my reports now produce errors while I test them due to large data size while opened in 32 Desktop RS, these worked OK w/o errors on the X64 Desktop RS version).

[v-chuncz-msft · Accepted solution]

@Anonymous,

You may install one for 32-bit version and one for 64-bit version.

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can have many versions, but, it seemd like only 1 version that is RS (connects to a Report Server). This is causing issues as I upgraded our testing server, but now I can't save/publish to our older Production Report Server. This is a major drawback, how is one suppose to test new versions if it renders our computers useless to publishing to another version? Just another of many Microsoft glaring and important omissions.