Starting Gnucash in Read-Only mode

[Colin Scott]

Is there some way to tell gnucash to run in read-only mode - ie, that it may not amend its accounts and transaction data?

Explanation:

I use the PortableApps version of Gnucash under Windows XP.  Because of changes previously reported in here to the output formats of the gnucash reports, I am forced to retain an installation of GnuCash 2.2.9 in order to be able to create reports in a format usable to me.

However, gnucash 2.4.2 offers some signficant benefits to - in particular that it now manages hierarchical accounts correctly and displays a correct balance for the top level of a hierarchy.  So I want to be able to run 2.4.2 whilst actually working , but to be able to run up 2.2.9 for reporting as required.  (OK, I have to close 2.4.2 first, and I have to continue to use the XML data store rather than a database!).  

To make this reasonably safe (to ensure that I do not risk corrupting the data by using multiple version of gnucash on it), I would like to be able to tell the reporting installation that it may read, but not write back, the accounts data (though it may, of course, write back status info, such as open account registers and reports, or report options, into its own environment!)

Colin