# Recommended practice for Ruby 1.8.6 and Ruby 1.9.x on Windows

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-practice-for-ruby-1-8-6-and-ruby-1-9-x-on-windows/181342>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 10, 2010, 7:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-practice-for-ruby-1-8-6-and-ruby-1-9-x-on-windows/181342 "2010-01-10T07:45:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mohits](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/bbe5ce/32.png) [@mohits](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mohits)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 7:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-practice-for-ruby-1-8-6-and-ruby-1-9-x-on-windows/181342/1 "2010-01-10T07:45:55Z")

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Hi there! Is there any recommended practice for using Ruby 1.8.6 and  
Ruby 1.9.x on the same Windows PC? I do some work in Rails and a lot of  
our stuff was written and is working fine in Ruby 1.8…6, so we’re  
hesitant (resistant?) to change it just yet.

What I want to do is to slowly start moving to Ruby 1.9.x in parallel so  
that I can start to see if all is well.

Any recommendations? The 1.8.6 was installed using the One Click  
Installer.

Cheers,  
Mohit.  
10/1/2010 | 2:44 PM.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mohits](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/bbe5ce/32.png) [@mohits](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mohits)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-practice-for-ruby-1-8-6-and-ruby-1-9-x-on-windows/181342/2 "2010-01-10T12:55:27Z")

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On 10/1/2010 6:13 PM, Phillip G. wrote:

> > Installer.
> 
> Just download and install 1.9 from [rubyinstaller.org](http://rubyinstaller.org). It installs Ruby  
> 1.9 in its own directory by default, so that 1.8.x and 1.9 can coexist  
> happily.
> 
> You can then install pik, for example (gem install pik), which allows  
> you to switch Ruby interpreters (for one console session only) on the  
> fly, and you can run your tests.
> 
> This, sans pik, is my own setup, and it works rather well.

Hi Phillip,

That’s reassuring - I’m off to it now! Finally, my Ruby 3 book will  
come in handy 🙂

Cheers,  
Mohit.  
10/1/2010 | 7:55 PM.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mohits](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/bbe5ce/32.png) [@mohits](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mohits)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-practice-for-ruby-1-8-6-and-ruby-1-9-x-on-windows/181342/3 "2010-01-10T11:13:38Z")

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On 10.01.2010 07:45, Mohit S. wrote:

> Hi there! Is there any recommended practice for using Ruby 1.8.6 and  
> Ruby 1.9.x on the same Windows PC? I do some work in Rails and a lot of  
> our stuff was written and is working fine in Ruby 1.8…6, so we’re  
> hesitant (resistant?) to change it just yet.
> 
> What I want to do is to slowly start moving to Ruby 1.9.x in parallel so  
> that I can start to see if all is well.
> 
> Any recommendations? The 1.8.6 was installed using the One Click Installer.

Just download and install 1.9 from [rubyinstaller.org](http://rubyinstaller.org). It installs Ruby  
1.9 in its own directory by default, so that 1.8.x and 1.9 can coexist  
happily.

You can then install pik, for example (gem install pik), which allows  
you to switch Ruby interpreters (for one console session only) on the  
fly, and you can run your tests.

This, sans pik, is my own setup, and it works rather well.