IDL Workspace for IDL 8.6 - "Workspace in use or cannot be created, choose a different one."

In previous versions of IDL, the default workspace would be version specific. For example, the default workspace for IDL 8.4 on windows is "C:\Users\<user name>\IDLWorkspace84". 

Starting with IDL 8.5, the default workspace is not version specific. On windows, the default workspace is "C:\Users\<user name>\IDLWorkspace". IDL 8.6 has the same default workspace as IDL 8.5.  



Therefore, if you are running the IDL 8.5 workbench and then try to launch an IDL 8.6 session, the following error message will likely occur:

"Workspace in use or cannot be created, choose a different one." 

The two ways to workaround the problem are:

1) Switch to a different workspace when launching IDL 8.6.

2) Close the IDL 8.5 session before launching IDL 8.6. 

Written by DS and reviewed by MM (12/2/2016)